Secrets and Friends
by Great Gray Owl
Summary: Nancy is investigating a case where Mr. Hardy is a prime suspect, but can she solve the case and keep Frank and Joe out of it? How is she going to catch the crook when the lieutenant in charge won't even look at another suspect?
1. The First Choice

_**Author's Note: **__Please read and reveiw. _

_**Warning: **__My last fanfic was a comedy so please don't be surprised by random jokes that may pop up during the course of the story._

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Nancy almost ran from her hotel room with Bess hurrying along behind her, "I don't like keeping this secret from them anymore than you do Bess, but I don't see any other choice! It will be easier to clear him if we can be sure he hasn't been told we're investigating him!" she said as they waited for the elevator.

"But don't you think they'll be mad when they find out we were investigating him and didn't tell them?" Bess asked worriedly, automatically stepping into the elevator when the doors opened.

Nancy stepped on after her friend but still studied Bess for a few moments before answering, the blonde was actually almost dressed well for a day on the move for once in a pale pink blouse, kakis, and a pair of tennis shoes that perfectly matched her blouse. Her long blonde hair was held back by some silver barrettes, and small silver hearts dangled from her ears. She looked great despite the fact that she looked worried. "I'm sure they'll understand… They know we have to investigate all the suspects even if we don't think they could really have done it, and they know that a detective tipping their hand can mean that a suspect that would have cleared can't be or a culprit that would have been found gets away." she said finally brushing some imaginary dirt off of her own blouse. She was dressed almost identically to Bess except she was wearing blue instead of pink and her hair was pulled back into a ponytail. She was also wearing gold studs at her ears rather than dangling silver.

"I hope so…" Bess replied unhappily, they went the rest of the way to the lobby in silence. "What are we doing first?" Bess asked as they walked out of the lobby into the warm air of New York.

"Why don't we go to that café on the corner for breakfast? We can figure what to do from there." Nancy said trying to cheer Bess up a little.

"Breakfast sounds good." Bess said trying to sound cheerful, and the started walking down the sidewalk towards the corner café. Nancy smiled and followed her friend catching up after a few yards.

When they got to the café the saw that it was the A Taste of France Café, when they had come by the night before on their way to their hotel they hadn't seen the name. Just enough to see that it was probably a café. "What do you think Bess? Do you want to taste France?" Nancy asked teasingly.

Bess sighed, "I think I could suffer through it." she said jokingly. The girls laughed as they went into the charmingly decorated café.

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"Whoa!" Joe said turning around in his seat as they passed a café that he had never really noticed before. "What is it Joe?" Frank asked barely glancing at his brother, he figured the answer would probably be something along the lines of a girl in tight jeans walking along the sidewalk going about her daily business.

"Those girls looked just like Nancy and Bess!" Was Joe's sort of surprising response, he was still looking behind them though they were nearly half a block from the café now and the traffic was surprisingly steady today.

"What?! What would they be doing in New York?" Frank asked incredulously, turning to look at Joe briefly in shock.

"I don't know, but I'm sure that was them." He said finally turning back around to face forward and turning to look at his brother. "Maybe Nancy is here on vacation."

"She would have told she was coming, and Mom didn't even say she tried to call when we got back from our last case. She didn't call us on our cell phones either." Frank pointed out smoothly, but Joe had him thinking about why Nancy would be in New York without telling them too.

"She could be on a case." Joe suggested next, there had been plenty of times when he and Frank had gone on cases where they couldn't tell Nancy that they were even on a case.

"Again, she probably would have told us. She doesn't work for the Grey Man remember?" Frank responded calmly as he made a turn.

"That we know of." Joe said a little bitterly, he had never been very accepting of the low level of information they were allowed in the Network. Frank just sighed and kept driving.

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Once they were seated at a table near the window and had their food Nancy leaned toward Bess with a serious expression on her face, "I think the first thing we should do is go to the police station and speak to Lieutenant Mahoy, and find out why he suspects Mr. Hardy in these shootings."

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_**Author's Note: **__I know any serious Hardy Boys fans are probably going to hate that…. Please review anyway, while I go and get my flame retardant clothing. Ok I'm done joking around for the moment. Really though I do want you to review, and I do know this is a short chapter but the next chapter is already in the works so in theory if my current flow of creativity keeps up it shouldn't take too long. But I do have several non-fan fiction stories I'm writing at the moment so my creative stores may run low at any time. Don't say I didn't warn you. My parents also tend towards liking me to sleep at night when my creative juices are flowing the strongest, so that could slow things down a bit too._


	2. Passive Avoidance

_**Disclaimer: **__I don't own Nancy Drew, Bess Marvin, The Hardys, New York, The Police Force, Any Cabs, Any sidewalks, any storefronts, or much of anything else… I do however own Lieutenant Mahoy and as far as I know the A Taste of France Café both of which are to the best of my knowledge my knowledge purely fictional._

* * *

Bess poked at her strawberry crepes with her fork, "I don't like this Nancy… I can't see Frank and Joe's dad shooting cops!" she said softly. 

"I know Bess… I can't see it either. But according to Mahoy that's why I was called, since Mr. Hardy is a suspect they didn't want to call in his sons to investigate him. He said that they had heard good things about me and most of the private detectives in New York are too closely connected to the case for the cops to be comfortable using them. Apparently Fenton Hardy isn't the only private detective that's a suspect, but Lieutenant Mahoy said he'd fill me in more fully when we got here." Nancy said taking a bite of one her own banana crepes.

After they finished their largely silent breakfast Nancy and Bess headed out to hail a cab, they gave the driver the address that Lieutenant Mahoy had given Nancy when he had called her a few days before. Neither Bess nor Nancy spoke much during the drive, both were lost in their own thoughts and worries over the case they were about to start that was already showing itself to be difficult.

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_**Author's Note: **And you thought the last chapter was short. Just kidding, back to the story! _

* * *

"Hello. My name is Nancy Drew, and this is my friend Bess Marvin. We're here to see Lieutenant Mahoy." Nancy said when they arrived at the police station. The officer at the desk remembered what Mahoy had said to them earlier about a Nancy Drew coming for a visit soon and gave the girls directions to the Lieutenant's office. "Thanks Officer." Bess said as she and Nancy started off. 

They followed the directions the officer had given them and came to a small office with the door open, they looked inside and saw a short muscular man with a ruddy well lined face bent over a messy desk. Nancy knocked on the door frame, "Lieutenant Mahoy ?" she asked tentatively.

"Yes… May I help you?" Lieutenant Mahoy asked looking up from the paperwork on his desk, now that he was looking at them they could see he had very pretty dark green eyes.

"I'm Nancy Drew and this is my friend Bess, you said for us to come see you when we arrived in the city." Nancy said sounding more confident now. "I was hoping we could discuss the case."

"Of course, why don't you close the door and have a seat?" He said gesturing to the two fairly uncomfortable looking chairs in the cramped space. "I'm sorry about the mess but my caseload is rather full at the moment, I'm sure you understand."

"Of course, we'll try not to take up too much of your time." Nancy said as she closed the door behind her and Bess.

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"Did you hear that Frank?" Joe asked as they passed another closed office door, though Joe was pretty sure that one had just closed. He'd heard the click.

"The sound of a bull pen in the middle of the morning?" Frank asked rolling his eyes, he stopped when

he realized that Joe had stopped and was looking around. "What are you looking for Joe?"

"I heard Nancy's voice, I'm trying to see if I can spot her." Joe said craning his neck to look around, he was on the verge of walking between the cubicles when his brothers voice distracted him.

Frank watched Joe for a few moments waiting for the younger Hardy to remember why they were there, but when it looked like Joe was actually going to go looking for Nancy he decided he had better put a stop to it. "Joe! Nancy is probably in river heights, hanging out with Bess and George or something like that. Or possibly like us, running an errand for her father! Remember? We're supposed to be getting that information from Dad's friend in Missing Persons." he said to Joe.

"Right. So how do we get to Missing Persons anyway?" Joe asked, they had been looking for the last twenty minutes with no luck so far. Sometimes he wondered if they rearranged the departments whenever he and Frank went out of town or something because they could never seem to find the department they were supposed to be going to.

"I think we take the next left… Or maybe it's the next right. This place is built like a maze!" Frank said in annoyance as the brothers started walking again.

"Could it be upstairs?" Joe asked, earning a glare from his brother.

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"Alright now I assume you want to know why I said Fenton Hardy was a suspect." Lieutenant Mahoy said looking across the desk at the two young woman seated there.

"Yes, we would. We'd also like to hear about any other suspects you might have." Nancy said simply, she didn't want to mention knowing the Hardy family in case that connection got her thrown off the case.

"Well at the moment Hardy is our main suspect, mostly because he is the only one we can find with a connection to all of the victims." Mahoy said sounding serious.

"And what would that connection be?" Nancy asked, she noticed his eye brow raise slightly at her professional tone but he answered her none the less.

"They were all cops he was investigating. They were suspected of taking bribes." he said him frown deepening.

"So this guy is going after dirty cops?" Nancy asked then seeing Mahoy's eyes darken she quickly corrected herself, "Or suspected dirty cops?"

"That is what we thought but a one of the victims was cleared by the department the day before she was shot." Mahoy said.

"The shooter may not have known that though so that still may be the motive." Bess said, speaking for the first time since they came into the room.

"Or he may have thought that the department made a mistake and she was guilty." Nancy pointed out, "There is no way we can know until we catch this guy and ask him." she added.

Mahoy looked like he was about to respond when the phone on his desk rang, after speaking to someone for a few moments he hung up. "Look I have to go right now, but I have permission from the Chief to give you a copy of what we have so far on this case for you to read over." He said taking a handful of files from a drawer of his desk and handing them to Nancy, "If you can give me a number where I can reach you I'll call you later and we can give each other an update." he added as the girls stood up to leave.

Nancy wrote her cell phone number and her hotel and room number on a post-it from the pad on his desk and handed it to him, "That sounds good, I look forward to solving this case with you." she said before she and Bess left the small office. When they were safely outside Bess let out her breath loudly, "I don't trust him Nancy, I think he was hiding something." she said without preamble.

"I understand… There was something about him that didn't quite ring true. Especially when he mentioned the cop who'd been cleared the day before she died." Nancy responded. "Maybe these files he gave us will shed some light on it, why don't we head back to the hotel and start reading up on the case?" she suggested. Bess nodded and they caught a cab at the corner.

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Frank walked back out into the spring sunshine, "Finally, now all we have to do is get this file to Dad and then we can go home." he said as he started walking down the block towards where they had parked the van.

"I say we look for Nancy when we're done, I know I heard her." Joe said following his brother down the sidewalk without even glancing at the storefronts they were passing.

Frank rolled his eyes, Joe had been adamant that Nancy was in the city since that scene in the homicide department. "How about we call her when we're done instead? New York is too big a city to try to find one specific person when they may not even be in the city and even if they are you don't know where to start looking." He said trying to think of a compromise.

"Fine, we can call her cell and ask her where she is. Then when she says 'New York' you'll know I'm right!" Joe said smugly.

"The only way we can call her cell is if she told you her new number. She e-mailed us last month to tell us she was changing it remember? She said the last company she tried didn't have a good plan for when it was stolen." Frank pointed out to his brother, effectively wiping the smug look off Joe's face. "We'll have to call her home phone."

"I'm sure Hannah will tell us where Nancy is though." Joe said as they climbed into the van, though he sounded less certain now.

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Bess tossed down the file she had been reading, "Nancy we've been at this for nearly two hours! Can't we stop for lunch or something?" she pleaded looking over at one of her best friends.

Nancy looked at the expression on Bess's face then at the time, lunch did sound good right about now. "All right Bess, where do you want to go? I don't think this place has room service." she said closing the file that she had been studying and leaving lying on the desk as she stood up.

Bess leapt up from where she had been stretched out on the bed to read her share of the files, "Great! Lets go to that café again, it's not too far away and the food was pretty good." she said.

Nancy laughed at her friends reaction, "Sounds good to me." she said and she locked the door behind them as they started for the A Taste of France Café.

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_**Author's Note: **__Ok, this is the real end of the chapter. But don't worry! The next chapter is already in the works. I'm sure it will be up before too long… Unless of course it's not. But that's a slim possibility. For those of you that are unhappy about the length of the chapters: I'm stopping the chapters when it feels right to me, deal with it. Anyway, please review._


	3. Cell Phones and EMail

_**Disclaimer: **__I do not own Nancy Drew, Bess Marvin, The Hardys, George Fayne… I own next to nothing, ok?! Is it nice to make me admit it?!_

**_Author's Note_**: _Hello folks! I want to thank everyone who reviewed, I enjoy reading them. And I thought I'd warn you that since the stress level in my life seems to be going down for the moment it will probably start taking longer for me to update. Don't ask me why it's easier for me to write halfway decent work when I'm stressed. I'll try to keep updating but I'm not saying when._

* * *

Joe spun in his seat for the second time that day, "Frank, stop the car! I just saw Nancy and Bess come out of that hotel!" he said, having to grab the seat to steady himself when Frank instinctively hit the brakes at Joe's yell. 

Frank cursed under his breath as he sped back up and ignored the shouting from the driver of the taxi that had nearly rear-ended them. "Joe! We cannot stop the car in middle of traffic because you saw a Nancy look-a-like on the street! We're in the left lane for chrissakes!" he yelled at Joe, then he subsided back into mumbling under his breath.

Joe turned to argue but stopped when he saw the look on Frank's face, he decided that discretion was the better part of valor. Or maybe what he was thinking of was 'Retreat and live to fight another day' but in any case he didn't press Frank any further right then.

_------------------------_

Forty-five minutes after entering the café Nancy and Bess left it and started back to the hotel, they hadn't discussed the case much over lunch since they both knew that until they finished reading the files there wasn't much they could do.

"We should try to find somewhere else to eat dinner, that place is good but we should at least _try_ to see more of New York's dining scene while were here anyway." Bess said as they walked to the hotel.

"I guess, I think the café was about to close anyway." Nancy responded. It was true, the café seemed to be a breakfast and lunch spot. They had been almost the last people out and most of the chairs had already been flipped onto the tables.

"I think so, they seemed eager to see us leave." Bess said with a smile, as she paused to study a store's window display.

Nancy laughed, "Well the sign said they closed at two and it's nearly two-thirty now, I can see why they wanted us out." she said as the two girls started walking again.

"So Nancy… Do you think we'll end up spending your birthday in New York?" Bess asked a few minutes later, Nancy would be turning twenty-one in a couple weeks and until this case had come up her friends in River Heights had been planning a surprise party for her.

Nancy sighed, "I don't know Bess, maybe. It's too early to tell. I hope not though." she said frowning. She wanted to be able to spend her boyfriend but if this case wasn't an easy one it was a good possibility they'd be in two different states when the day came.

Bess sent her friend a sympathetic look and changed the subject, they discussed fashion the rest of the way to their hotel room.

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"Frank?" Joe said hesitantly as they drove towards their Dad's office, he was pretty sure that Frank had calmed down from their earlier experience with hitting the brakes in the left-hand lane of traffic… But you could never be entirely certain until you actually got him talking, and even then at times it was hit or miss.

"What Joe?" Frank asked, thinking that if his brother said anything about stopping to look for Nancy he dumping him out on the sidewalk and leaving him there. Ah, the wonder of being the brother with the keys.

"Did we ever decide what we going to do for Nancy's birthday? Whether we were going to go that surprise party Bess and George invited us to or not?" Joe asked, the cousins had left a message on their machine about the surprise party while they had been in Peru on a case and since they hadn't been back a week, they hadn't had time to return all the calls yet.

"What do you think Joe?" Frank asked as he changed lanes, they were getting close enough to their destination that it was time to start looking for a parking place.

"I think we should go, after all you only turn twenty-one once." Joe said as Frank pulled into a spot on the side of the road barely big enough for the van and shut off the engine.

Frank shook his head as he got out, remembering how he had spent his own twenty-first birthday; in Peru, on the third month of a case that should have taken about three weeks and instead took six months to solve, and the only family around was Joe who not only couldn't he take to a bar even he wasn't on a case and could go out and buy a beer, but also nearly got them both shot. He had been happy enough once you got past the frustration of the case and the nearly getting shot, he had called his parents that day and bought a beer with his Dad the day after he and Joe had gotten back home.

"That's true, we can call Bess and George when we get home." Frank said as he stepped up onto the sidewalk, "You got the file?" he asked his brother.

"Right here." Joe said holding up a large manila envelope, at Frank's nod they started walking.

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"You'd think police files would be more interesting." Bess said after another couple hours of reading files, they had now hit the point where they were each reading the files that the other had already finished.

"You'd think. But I don't think you can beat the cops when it comes to a dry recital of the facts." Nancy said as she studied yet another crime scene photo, and was again thankful that these had been clean shootings and not tortures or something like that.

"Did they have to include so many photos?" Bess asked as she set aside the one she had just been looking at and picked up the third one in that file.

"We need all the information we can get on these crimes Bess, and since most of the cops aren't even supposed to know I'm on the case we can't actually go to the crime scenes even if they were in places that could be closed off until the crime was solved." Nancy said. All six victims had been shot on the sidewalk as they came out of a restaurant.

"Uh, I hate it when we're under cover! It's so much easier when we can go look around and ask questions without worrying about blowing your cover!" Bess complained.

"I know Bess, and it's even worse on this case since we're just 'civilian advisors'." Nancy said scowling slightly at her file.

"Bet they never called Sherlock Holmes a 'civilian advisor'." Bess muttered half under her breath causing Nancy to turn around and look at her.

"There are two major things wrong with that statement Bess, One: Sherlock Holmes wasn't a real detective. Two: I don't think they had the term 'civilian advisor' back then even if he did exist." Nancy said, then after a pause both girls started laughing.

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"Ok, Nancy is not in her apartment or at her Dad's…" Frank said starting the run down of the results of the calls they'd made so far.

"And neither Bess nor George are answering at their cell phones or the phones at their apartments." Joe said ticking them off on the chart in his head. Actually when they tried Bess's cell phone they went straight to her voice mail, but still. "So what now?"

"When was the last time you checked your e-mail?" Frank asked shrugging, "All I think of right now is try again later."

Joe shrugged and frowned trying to remember when he had last checked his e-mail. "I think I checked it a couple weeks ago." He said after a few minutes, "We've kind of busy!" he added defensively when he saw Frank roll his eyes.

"Why don't you check it now while we wait for one of them to get home?" he suggested as he left the room, he didn't bother to say where he was going but Joe was starting to used to that. Frank had started doing that more and more often since Joe had nearly gotten them both shot on Frank's birthday… Sometimes he wondered if there was a connection there but he dismissed it, Frank just wasn't one to hold grudges like that.

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George walked into her apartment and dumped her bag by the door, she wandered over to her couch and played her messages as she took her shoes off. Her head came up when she heard Frank's voice:

"_Hi George, we just thought we'd call about what you called us about. Where is everybody anyway? We tried Bess and Nancy and neither of them were home."_

"_And Bess's cell phone is going straight to voice mail." _Joe's voice chimed in.

"_Yeah, think you can call and fill us in? Joe seems to think that Nancy and Bess are in New York."_

"_Frank thinks they're in River Heights and are just too busy to answer the phone, could you set the record straight?" _Joe finished.

George set her shoes aside and picked up her phone to call Nancy's cell, she knew that they were in New York. What she was about to try to find out was why they hadn't told the Hardys they were in town.

"_Hello?" _Nancy answered after only two rings.

"Hey Nan, how's the case going?" George asked conversationally, as she balanced the phone between her cheek and her shoulder and tried to take down her short ponytail.

"_I've definitely had easier ones, I'm not even allowed on the crime scenes. I have to deal with photos, that they supply." Nancy responded sounding a little irritated._

"I'm sorry Nan… I got a call from Frank and Joe earlier, they don't seem sure whether your in New York or not. Haven't you called them yet?" George asked her old friend.

"_I can't call them George, Mr. Hardy is a prime suspect in this case and I'd rather not have any of his family know that I'm investigating it." Nancy said sounding less than happy._

"Mr. Hardy? But I thought you were investigating someone shooting cops?!" George responded, shocked.

"_I am. But that doesn't change the fact that from what we have so far Fenton Hardy is the only one with a connection to all of the victims, he was investigating claims that they were dirty cops." Nancy explained._

"Yikes… So it doesn't look good for him." George murmured.

"_No it doesn't… But I can't see Mr. Hardy doing something like this, I just have to find who did. And in the mean time I don't think I should be hanging out with the sons of a prime suspect in a murder investigation. It could be construed as conflict of interest even if I didn't tell them about the case." _Nancy said, a scowl in her voice.

"_Nancy! Hurry up I'm hungry!" _Bess's voice floated into the conversation.

"_Look George, I have to go. Bess just finished getting dressed and is waiting for me, we're about to go get dinner. We'll talk to you later George. Bye!" _Nancy said quickly and hung up.

"Bye." George said quietly as she hung up her own phone, then she deleted Frank and Joe's message as if it had never been.

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Joe frowned as he went through his e-mail. There were eight from his girlfriend, all of them asking why he wasn't returning her calls and the last of which explaining why she wasn't returning his. Thinking back he guessed that he should have at least e-mailed her to let her know that someone had shot his cell phone (thank you Frank and the Peruvian drug runners), not that she was likely to believe it. Oh well, it's not like it's the first girl to dump him.

He had already found four from his Dad asking how the case was going, luckily his Dad was smart enough to send those to Frank's e-mail too so he would actually get a response. Several from Nancy most of which were identical to the ones Frank had received except for one which had a note tacked onto the end: "Do you ever check your e-mail? I don't think I've received anything from you since you sent me your address!" And… An e-mail from Bess saying that George had borrowed her cell phone while hers in for repairs and accidentally dropped it in the pool so she was temporarily without a cell, and that she had lost Frank's e-mail address.

"Frank! I found out why Bess isn't answering her cell!" Joe called as he deleted another load of junk e-mail without bothering to open any of it. He glanced over as he heard Frank come back into the room, "She said George dropped it into a pool, she e-mailed me a few days ago. Oh and she lost your e-mail address." he explained.

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George finished loading her dishwasher, closing it with a snap after filling the soap trays. Once she turned that contraption on she started towards the bedroom to start getting ready for a shower. She grabbed a pair of pajamas from a drawer in her room, then a towel from the hall closet but when she set them in the bathroom she decided that a bubble bath was more what she needed tonight. So she started filling the tub and added lots of bubbles to the mix. But before the tub was even a quarter filled the phone rang, she left the water running as she went to answer it.

"Hello?" She said, then her eyes widened as she heard who it was.

* * *

_**Author's Note: **__Does that count as a cliff hanger? I don't know. Anyway, the usual stuff right here: Please review, next chapter is in the works and will be up when it's finished, and all that. I hope you enjoyed it, I honestly do._


	4. Research

_**Disclaimer: **__What? You still want a list of what I don't own? Do you really have that much time?_

_**Author's Note:** Note to self: obsessing over stories makes for weird dreams... Also try to remember dreams for future stories._

* * *

Joe grinned at George's voice when she answered, "Hi George!" he said. He and Frank had her on speaker phone because they had both gotten tired of having to tip the phone so that the other could hear the lack of an answer. 

"_Hi Joe." _George said, she didn't sound overly happy to hear from him though.

"Hello George, I'm here too." Frank put in.

"_Hey Frank, what's up guys?" _George asked.

"Not much, we just got back from that case in Peru we've been working on." Frank said.

"_Really? What were you doing? You never said before." _George asked sounding like she was warming up to the conversation.

"Tracking down Peruvian drug runners, we were on that case for six months." Joe said with a grin.

"_So you were on that case for Frank's birthday? That had to stink." _George said sympathetically.

"It did, especially when Joe nearly got us shot." Frank said with a small scowl for his brother who frowned back.

"You got my phone shot, which resulted in my girlfriend breaking up with me so I'd say we're even." Joe responded.

"Somehow I have a suspicion that if you checked your e-mail more than once a month she wouldn't have dumped you, and besides if we hadn't had bullets flying at us to begin with your phone never would have gotten hit." Frank pointed out. "Anyway speaking of birthdays, what's happening for Nancy's? Is that party still on?" he asked, stepping on Joe's foot before Joe could continue the argument.

"_I'm not sure… I haven't really had a chance to talk to Bess in a couple days and she's the one that's keeping up with Nancy's plans for her birthday, so I'm not sure what's going on." _George said sounding apologetic.

"Let us-" Frank started but Joe cut him off.

"George, are Nancy and Bess in New York?" Joe asked suddenly stepping on Frank's foot in retaliation.

"_Oh I'm sorry guys! I just remembered that I have to go practice for a race! I'll talk to you later! Bye!" _George said and hung up before either Frank or Joe could respond.

Joe looked at his watch then at Frank, "She has to practice for a race at eight-thirty in the evening?" he asked having figured out the time difference in his head. Frank just shrugged.

----------------------------

George put her head in her hands for a moment, "Oh man… How are we going to keep this from them?" she asked herself miserably then the sound of running water reached her ears.

"Oh crap!" she exclaimed as she ran for the bathroom barely reaching it in time to turn the water off before the tub overflowed.

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**Next Day**

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Bess slapped at the alarm without opening her eyes, then noticing that even after she hit the darn thing it kept beeping she opened her eyes. It only took a few moments for it to register that: (1: It was only seven-fifteen in the morning. (2: Her alarm wasn't beeping. And (3: Nancy wasn't in her bed.

That third one got Bess to sit up rather quickly, which was when she noticed the second alarm on the other side of Nancy's bed. That one was beeping and getting steadily louder so Bess got up and turned it off, after the beeping stopped she could hear the sound of a shower running. So that was two mysteries solved before seven-thirty, and she hadn't even had to ask Nancy for help. _Of course there is still the mystery of why we're up before seven-thirty, _Bess thought yawning. _I think I'll ask Nancy about that when she finishes in the shower._

Nancy came out of the bathroom to find Bess sitting at the desk reading a fashion magazine and looking half asleep, which is impressive. Not many people can manage both. "Morning Bess." she said cheerfully.

"Why are we up this early anyway?" Bess asked stifling another yawn, and turning the page in her magazine. There was a dress in here that she would get Nancy for her birthday if she had the money, but sadly it was way beyond her price range.

"I want to talk to Mahoy again, then do some investigating on my own." Nancy said, "But first we should get some breakfast." she added watching Bess's face light up at the mention of the morning meal.

"That French café again? They had wonderful crepes." Bess suggested, laughing when Nancy agreed. "I'm going to go take a shower!" she said and ran for their bathroom after picking up the clothes she had sitting on the foot of her bed.

Nancy's smile faded slightly as her friend left the room, she went to the desk and opened one of the files and started reading while she waited for Bess to shower and dress.

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Frank sat in the living room of the apartment he and Joe shared with their friend Chet, Chet had just left for work and Joe was still asleep. For the most part this was a good set up, Chet got a three bedroom apartment to himself whenever the brothers were off on a case and the Hardys got a place to live between cases without having to either live with their parents or leave their dwellings unattended for long periods of time. Not a good idea in New York.

Hearing something from Joe's room Frank leaned over to look down the hall, then seeing the bathroom door close he turned his attention back to the TV. "Joe! Get in here!" he shouted just a couple minutes later as the news announced the .shooting death of a police officer as he was coming out of a restaurant where he had been eating breakfast with some fellow officers before they started their shift.

Joe came skidding into the living room still wearing only the shorts he had slept in, "What is it?" he asked before his gaze fell on the TV. "Oh man… Did he just say sixth?" he murmured but was instantly shushed by Frank who was listening intently.

"This new shooting has triggered fresh speculation that a serial killer is targeting our boys in blue. The police have declined to comment. In other news…." The news caster said moving smoothly into the next story.

"He said sixth." Frank confirmed, "And I don't know about you but I hadn't heard anything about a serial killer before now."

Joe shook his head, "I haven't heard anything about multiple cops having been killed either." he said. "I know we've been out of town for awhile but you'd think someone would have mentioned it."

Frank nodded, "We should keep an eye on this." he said standing up. "I'm going to the library to look at some back issues of a few papers to see if they mention anything about this before now." he added.

"I'll come with you." Joe said automatically.

Looking at Joe he pointed out, "You might want to get dressed first."

--------------------------------

"Lieutenant Mahoy? May we come in?" Nancy asked after knocking on the doorway of the lieutenant's small office. She and Bess filed in and closed the door behind themselves at Mahoy's nod.

"So ladies, I assume you've heard about the latest shooting." He said without preamble, his eyes sharp on their faces.

"There was another shooting?" Bess asked surprised by the news, neither she nor Nancy had heard anything about it.

"Didn't you see the news this morning? Another police officer was shot when he tried to leave the diner where he made the mistake of having an early breakfast with a couple of his buddies before he came in this morning. Luckily the other two weren't hurt, just surprised." Lieutenant Mahoy said scowling darkly, "I'm sorry to say, we obviously didn't manage to keep this one from the press. And I think someone leaked the idea that they cases are connected. Lucky for us the press never got wind of the cop that was shot at the restaurant near the docks so they think it's only six connected deaths."

"Not a big difference if you really think about it but it may still be the difference between worry and panic I guess." Nancy said thoughtfully. "So what can you give me this time?" she asked.

"Nothing yet… They're still processing everything but I should have something for you by this evening, tomorrow morning at the latest." Mahoy answered. "If you hadn't heard about the latest shooting what made you come?" he asked curiously.

"Well, I was wondering if you knew what kind of gun was used." Nancy asked calmly, in a business like tone that earned a very slight nod of approval from Mahoy.

"Yes, a .45 glock. We've also checked who has one of those registered." He said trying to stay one step ahead of the much younger detective.

"So you would know if Fenton Hardy is on that list?" Bess asked quickly.

"Yes. And he is." Mahoy said quickly, the girls hid their disappointment well though because when he looked up from double checking the list for Mr. Hardy's name he didn't seem to notice anything.

"Can't you get a warrant for his gun and check it against the bullets from the bodies?" Nancy asked pointedly, it would be a very simple way to either prove he did it or prove that if he did it he was using an unregistered gun.

"We would but Hardy reported his gun stolen months ago, a few weeks before the shootings started." Mahoy said sighing, "I guess that would have made it too easy." he muttered making Nancy frown inwardly. It seemed like he had already decided that Mr. Hardy was the culprit!

By the time they left the station Nancy liked the lieutenant even less than she had at the end of their last meeting, he didn't seem to be looking at the case objectively at all.

"I think it's time we did some investigating on our own." Nancy said as they walked down the stations steps, "Lets head over to the library, I want to find those stories on the other shootings that Mahoy mentioned."

"Okay, but promise me we'll stop for lunch sometime close to lunch!" Bess responded passionately.

"Alright Bess! But we still have a few hours before lunch time so lets head towards the nearest library." Nancy said laughing.

--------------------------------

"Come on Frank!" Joe pleaded, he and his brother had been at the library for the past several hours. Now Joe was getting hungry and Frank was ignoring him, which was not sitting well with Joe. "Let's just take a break, go get lunch. Before we go blind or something."

"That's your stomach talking Joe, we're _not_ going to go blind from reading back issues of newspapers." Frank said without looking away from the computer screen.

"Well my stomach has reason to be vocal Frank! It's nearly one and we skipped breakfast!" Joe complained loudly, earning shushing sounds from everyone in the room. "Come on big brother, you must be getting hungry too!"

Frank finally looked over at Joe, whose face was a mixture of anger, annoyance, exasperation, and possibly a few other emotions but anyway the over all effect was pitiful in a 'Frank had to fight to keep from laughing and still didn't quite manage not to smirk' kind of way. "Alright Joe, we'll break for lunch." he agreed.

Joe broke out in a grin, "Yes!" he said quietly as he started out of the room leaving Frank to shut down the computer. Frank shook his head as he followed Joe out, but he had to admit that he was hungry too.

-----------------------------------

"How was I supposed to know that the library nearest the station would have back issues of any papers?" Nancy asked Bess as they mounted the steps to the large library, the second one they would try. "It seems like logically they would."

Bess laughed, "It's alright Nancy, I'm sure this one will have them." she said reassuringly "And it's near a pizza parlor!" She was in a good mood because they had just finished lunch in said pizza parlor.

"We'll have to keep that in mind." Nancy said laughing, suddenly Bess tugged on Nancy's arm and pulled her friend to the side of the steps as two guys walked down past them. It took a moment for Nancy to realize who had just walked by. Both men had to be at least six feet tall, one blond and one with dark brown hair.

"I thought they were still in Peru!" Bess whispered to Nancy as they watched Frank and Joe Hardy walk away and get lost in the crowds passing on the sidewalk.

"At least they were leaving the library and not going in! Less of a chance of them spotting us!" Nancy whispered back as they continued up the steps and into the library.

* * *

_**Author's Note: **__Ok, my library doesn't even have back issues of the newspaper as far as I know so I just have the library in the story keeping them on files on the computers and people can look them up whenever they want. It's only a matter of time till they do that anyway. Please don't hate me for that but I live in the middle of no-where Alabama and I could not find one of the books where it said how the old newspapers were stored in their libraries! I think the ones I read it in may have come from my library… Or I may have just missed it but either way I can't find it and this makes it easier in any case since I can understand a little about looking something up on the computer._


	5. What Are The Odds?

_**Disclaimer: **__Even if you have time for a list of everything I don't own, I don't have the time or inclination to give you one._

_**Author's Note:** Ok, I'm not going to update again until I have atleast two chapters written. I want to start getting ahead and give myself a little extra time to work on editing, also if anyone out there reading this is interested in being a beta reader for this story I would be grateful. I probably need one badly._

* * *

"Ok Joe, burgers or pizza?" Frank asked as they walked in the general direction of the van, since they didn't really know what they would be eating yet they weren't sure if they would be going far enough to bother driving there or not. 

"Pizza." Joe said almost instantly since he had spotted a pizza parlor just across the street. He pointing it out to Frank who nodded and the two joined the throng of people waiting for the light to change, neither had noticed how close they had come to the girls on the steps to the library.

-----------------------------

"Nan? I don't think you really need me for this part so I'm going to go get some magazines ok?" Bess said hesitantly, she was half-afraid that Nancy would insist on her helping look for the articles.

"Go on Bess, I can do this stuff on my own." Nancy said as she started her search for the articles, after only a few minutes she could see why Mahoy thought someone must have leaked the serial killer theory. She had accidentally found her way into the obituaries and could hardly believe how many of them were for cops killed in the line of duty. The sad part was that for most of them their obituary was the only mention the paper gave their death. Beyond being a sad window into human nature all on it's own, that fact was also bound to make Nancy's research job harder.

Bess returned with a small stack of magazines just after Nancy realized that it wouldn't be as easy as she thought to find newspaper articles on the shootings, Nancy glanced over just long enough to see the fashion magazine on the top of the stack. She smiled and shook her head slightly as she turned back to the screen, she didn't even notice the party planning magazine Bess had under the fashion one. Bess settled into a chair near Nancy's and started reading her magazines.

--------------------------------

"So did you find anything Frank?" Joe asked between bites of pizza, now that he was getting food he was again willing to talk about what had brought them to this cheesily decorated pizza parlor where the pizza was only not bad at best.

"Not much, but you know as well as I do that a cops death doesn't make the paper often in New York City. Not unless they were working on a high profile case that was getting a lot of attention before. And I don't even know who I'm looking for." Frank said shaking his head, "I want to look more after we eat though." he added after taking a bite out of his own pizza.

Joe rolled his eyes, Frank was acting like they were on a case. "Got it big brother." he said as he kept eating his pizza. Only after he had finished his first slice and started on his second did he speak again, "I think I know why Nancy hasn't called to tell up she's in New York." he said out of the blue.

Frank rolled his eyes as he swallowed the bite of pizza he had just taken, "Why?" he asked to humor his little brother.

"Simple, she thinks we're still in Peru." Joe said with a small smirk, "She wouldn't leave a message on our machine because we wouldn't hear them until she was gone already, she wouldn't call us on our cells for the same reason. There would be no way for us to see her while she was here even she did tell us so why bother to tell us?" Joe asked logically.

"I still say if she were going to be in New York she'd have called us, even if she thought we were still in Peru just to see if we'd be heading home in time to see her while she was in town." Frank pointed out, "Like she's done several times in the past." Joe just finished his pizza in silence.

-----------------------------

"Who would want to look up back issues of Vogue?" Nancy asked having accidentally stumbled onto one of the popular fashion magazine's articles.

"I might, but it seems like it would be easier to just buy it." Bess said hardly looking up from her magazine.

Nancy nodded and kept up her search for the articles, this system was very different then the one the library in River Heights used. "Finally." she breathed as she found the area where she could type in a name and find any articles associated with it. Both girls were so interested in what they were reading neither noticed the two men walking into the room.

-----------------------------

Joe scanned the room as Frank started for one of the computers, the room was almost empty as far as people went; there was a guy that looked like he was sleeping slumped over a table in the far corner of the room, a dark haired guy (not Frank) that looked really caught up in whatever he was reading, and a pair of girls sitting near each other a couple tables away from Frank. One of the girls seemed to be reading magazines and the other was using one of the computers. Joe had sat down beside Frank before he did the double take, then he grinned and elbowed Frank in the ribs.

"Ow! What?" Frank asked in a whisper then he followed the direction of Joe's silent point, trying to ignore the smug look on his brothers face. His mouth nearly feel open in shock as he saw Nancy and Bess in New York, just like Joe had said. "You aren't ever going to let me live this down are you?" he asked after a few moments.

"Not a chance big brother." Joe responded as Nancy suddenly glanced up from the computer screen and saw them, he noticed her eyes widen slightly before she nudged Bess. "Lets go say hi." he suggested getting up.

--------------------------------

Nancy felt like someone was watching her and scanned the room, it took only a few seconds for her eyes to fall on Frank and Joe. _Oh crap_, She thought instantly, but she kept her thoughts off her face and nudged Bess.

Bess looked up at Nancy then at where Nancy gestured, "Oh no." Bess barely breathed as the Hardys started over.

Nancy quietly and quickly typed in a couple commands and pulled up that back issue of Vogue again and pretended that she had been reading that.

"Hey Nan." Joe said quietly with a grin as the brothers got close, "Hey Bess!"

"Hey guys." Frank said with a smile of his own, "How are things going?" he asked.

"Fine." Nancy said quickly, she closed her notebook with one hand but didn't even look over at it.

"So what brings you to New York?" Joe asked leaning against the table near the computer they were using.

Nancy glanced at the clock on the wall then at her watch suddenly, "Bess! Look at the time!" she said rather than answer.

"Oh no! We're late!" Bess said quickly gathering up the magazines she had taken to the table, and starting off at a near run.

Nancy grabbed her notebook and the few magazines that Bess had missed, "Sorry guys, we have to go now! Bye!" she said rushing after Bess.

"Is it just me or was that rather sudden?" Joe asked, "It looked almost like a retreat." he added.

"You're getting paranoid, that having been said I agree with you this time. That was suspicious." Frank said turning to the computer that Nancy had forgotten to turn off, "Let's see what they were looking up." he said hitting a couple buttons to bring up the pages before the Vogue article.

"Why was she looking up cops obituaries?" Joe asked reading over Frank's shoulder.

"Not just obituaries, articles. Looks like she knew exactly who she was looking for too." Frank said as he read what Nancy had found.

"Why is she interested in those five though?" Joe asked sounding even more confused, "You think maybe she is on a case after all?" he asked.

"I don't know… Maybe we're just being paranoid, we spent a lot of time looking over our shoulders on that last case." Frank said but he didn't stop reading.

* * *

_**Author's Note: **__Not long after I started this story I read in someone else's author's notes (I forget whose) that reviews were addictive… They were right. So please remember to reveiw!_


	6. Questions

_**Disclaimer: **I don't own Nancy Drew, the Hardy Boys, or Bugs Bunny, or anything associated with any of them. But wouldn't it be cool if I did?_

* * *

"Oh man, oh man, oh man…." Bess muttered as she and Nancy got into a cab and started for the hotel. "There is no way they didn't notice that… Do you think they noticed that?" she asked sounding a little desperate.

"They noticed that. They're detectives, they definitely noticed that." Nancy said sounding slightly disgusted with herself. "I can't believe 'we're late' was the best we could come up with."

"Well… It was rather short notice." Bess said slightly defensively, "Besides it's not like it's easy to lie to those two." she added miserably.

"No… It's not." Nancy said then the cab filled with an uncomfortable silence. After a few minutes of it Nancy checked her watch, "Let's call Mahoy when we get back to the hotel, maybe he'll have something for us." she said to break the silence.

Bess merely nodded though, causing the silence to come back like an unwanted house guest. Nancy sighed and turned to look out her window and watch as they passed the stores.

---------------------------------------

"But Fenton… Shouldn't we should tell the boys what's going on? You know they saw the news this morning." Laura Hardy said to her husband as she tried to finish dinner before her sons got there.

"The less they know the better Laura, they need time to relax not worry about if I'm going to go to jail or not. The case is in good hands, they'll find the ones responsible. The boys don't need to get involved." Fenton said to his wife in a soothing voice.

Laura sighed, "Alright dear… But I hope you know that it's only a matter of time until they figure out that something is going on, and I doubt they'll thank us for keeping it a secret." she said simply.

Fenton kissed Laura's cheek, "They won't thank us but you saw how they were when they got off the plane, they need this time to relax. Almost as much as they need your meatloaf."

---------------------------------------

Frank walked up the steps to his parents house with Joe close behind, "You think we should bring up the cop killer?" Joe asked Frank as they came to the door of their childhood home.

"Lets just see how it goes Joe, Dad probably knows about it already but you know as well as I do that they both want us to relax for awhile." Frank responded.

"And if we bring it up the fact that we have no intention of getting involved, it won't stop them from worrying." Joe finished. "Ok, so we don't bring it up. We don't have to change the subject if they bring it up though do we?"

Frank grinned at his brother, "That would be suspicious Joe." he said before he opened the door and effectively ended the conversation.

The two detectives walked into their parents house knowing that this was one place that it didn't matter if their friends were avoiding them for some reason or if they took on a case with next to no information. They would always be welcome anyway.

-----------------------------------

"Thank you Lieutenant, we'll be sure to keep in touch. I'll call you in the morning to check on those files alright? Good Bye." Nancy said into the phone as Bess looked through a phone book for a Chinese restaurant that was somewhere near the hotel.

"Found one." Bess said as Nancy hung up, "I'll be back soon." she added then she left Nancy alone in their hotel room without waiting to find out what Mahoy had had to say.

Nancy flopped backwards to lie across the bed and stare at the ceiling for a moment before she stirred herself to call her Father and check in. He should have gotten back from his trip to Chicago by now.

------------------------------------------

By the time Frank and Joe got back to their apartment it was after midnight, they had left their parents house despite Laura Hardy's objections that they shouldn't be on the road as late as they would have to be to get home. But they didn't want to stay and after promising to call when they got home they had left. Frank called Fenton while Joe read the note Chet had stuck on the fridge:

_Guys, _

_I'm off to Atlanta for awhile._

_I should be back in about a week, but_

_I can't make any promises. I'm_

_sorry about the timing, I really did_

_mean to take you two to that new _

_Mexican Restaurant I found last month._

_I wrote the address and the schedule_

_down by the phone so you two can try it_

_out while I'm gone if you want to. You_

_two try to relax while you can, we all_

_know you'll be off on another case soon_

_enough. Enjoy the peace and quiet, you_

_two are magnets for trouble so it won't_

_last long._

_Chet_

When Frank hung up the phone Joe handed the note to him, "Why does everyone seem to think we want peace and quiet?" he asked half-joking.

"I don't know Joe, getting shot at by maniacs is so much more fun." Frank said dryly as he finished the reading the note.

"It's certainly more interesting, peace and quiet gets so boring so fast." Joe said stretching out on the couch and turning on the TV.

Frank stood behind the couch for a couple minutes watching Joe flip through the channels, "Night Joe." he said as he started towards his bedroom.

"Night Frank." Joe said as he finally settled on a bugs bunny cartoon, they never seemed to have much of a plot but he was ok with that. He wasn't quite ready to go to bed but he was still too tired to try to follow a plot line at the moment. Within ten minutes he was asleep.

Frank lay in his bed for a long while staring at the ceiling and wondering why Nancy would keep secrets from them, and more why she would be avoiding them. Even when he and Joe were under cover they never avoided Nancy if they ran into her, they certainly didn't if they were in her town. Eventually he rolled over onto his side to stare at the wall while he tried to figure it out.

-----------------------------------

Nancy rolled over in her sleep then jerked awake as she nearly rolled off the foot of the bed as she had been laying across the bottom of it when she had fallen asleep, for a moment when she sat up she felt confused and couldn't think of why she was asleep at the foot of her bed. Then she looked around and realized that Bess wasn't back yet and that it was nearly one a.m.

* * *

_**Author's Note: **__Please review and let me know what you think, I'll try to update again soon._


	7. Creamer

_**Disclaimer: **__If you know what it is I probably don't own the rights to it. I also do not own the rights to any of the cartoons mentioned in this or any other chapter nor to the Boomerang network, or Cartoon Network._

* * *

After spending a couple hours failing to fall asleep Frank finally decided to get a drink. he moved fairly quietly until he spotted Joe asleep on the couch. He studied his brother a moment before he walked over and gave Joe a gentle nudge, "Joe, go to bed before you roll off the couch." he said then he nudged Joe one more time before he walked towards the kitchen. 

Frank was in the middle of fixing some chocolate milk when he heard the thump and grumbling that told him that his prediction had been correct, Joe had rolled off the couch. Joe wandered into the kitchen a moment later, "What's going on Frank?" he asked sleepily.

"Nothing Joe, I just couldn't sleep." Frank said, automatically sliding the chocolate powder over towards Joe as his little brother took down a glass of his own. Then Frank turned towards the fridge to get the milk out.

"Anything I should be worried about?" Joe asked as he spooned half again the amount of chocolate powder in Frank's glass into his own.

Frank raised an eyebrow at the amount of chocolate in Joe's glass, "Want some milk with your chocolate?" he asked as he filled his glass.

Joe rolled his eyes as he took the milk from Frank, "Are you going to answer my question or what? Do I need to be worried or did you just have to much caffeine today?" he asked while he filled his glass and Frank stirred his.

"If you aren't worried you probably don't need to, I've just been trying to figure out why Nancy would be trying to avoid us." Frank said frowning as he set the spoon aside for Joe to use and sipped his chocolate milk.

Joe frowned as well as he picked up the spoon and stirred his own milk, "Thanks Frank… Now I'm not going to be able to get back to sleep." he said frowning thoughtfully.

"You asked little brother." Frank said with a smirk, "Try not to think about it till morning." he suggested as he finished his milk and put the glass in the sink to wash in the morning. He walked out into the living room, a glance at the TV showed that Bugs Bunny had given way to the Flintstones.

"Hey cool, the Flintstones!" Joe said as he came out of the kitchen behind Frank.

"Go to bed Joe." Frank said as he walked over to the couch, picked up the remote, and turned off the TV. Then he decided to try and follow his own advice and started down the hall towards his bedroom with a quick detour to brush his teeth.

Joe sent a rueful glance down the hall after his brother and briefly considered turning the TV back on but ended up sighing and heading towards the bathroom to brush his teeth, he got there just as Frank was coming out. "Good night little brother." he said as he went by.

"Night Frank." Joe said for the second time that night, then he went into the bathroom and shut the door.

-----------------------------

**Next Day**

-----------------------------

The next morning Frank woke up to what sounded like Tom and Jerry on the TV in the living room, which meant that Joe had either gone back to watch the Flintstones last night or he had gotten up first this morning. It wasn't hard to figure out which of those two was more likely. Frank rolled out of bed and started getting together clothes for the day, then he went out to take his shower. He paused as he smelled donuts, "Joe?" he called since he couldn't hear anything other than the TV.

"Hey Frank, it's about time you got up. I've got donuts if you want some." Joe called back, it sounded like he was somewhere around the couch.

"I'm about to take a shower, do you need the bathroom?" Frank asked without responding to the offer of donuts, though he was rather surprised that Joe had not only been up before him but had had enough time to go get donuts and get back already.

"Go ahead." Joe responded and Frank went on to take his shower.

Joe sat in front of the couch in the living room eating donuts, drinking coffee, and watching Tom and Jerry. He had missed cable during that last case, even if he was spending a lot of time watching Cartoon Network and Boomerang since he'd been back. You have to decompress somehow and he chose to do so by watching cartoons, Frank seemed to be doing it by researching anything he could find half a reason to.

After a short while Joe heard Frank turn the water off and move from the bathroom to his bedroom, Joe knew that now it would most likely only be a matter of minutes before he had to share his donuts. He considered trying to see how many he could eat in that amount of time but he figured it would only result in him making himself sick, and Frank laughing at him for it.

Frank walked in and grabbed one of the donuts from the box on the coffee table before he went into the kitchen for a cup of coffee, "Morning Joe." he said after he had taken his first bite of donut.

"Morning Frank." Joe said with a smirk, he started counting down to when Frank would notice the time. If he hadn't known for a fact that Frank had still been awake at four o'clock that morning he would woken his brother up earlier but he'd figured that Frank needed the sleep, and since for once they weren't on a case they could afford the luxury.

"Joe… Did you reset the kitchen clock or something?" Frank asked slowly from the doorway. Joe had to bite back a grin, he found this highly entertaining.

"No, but if you don't believe me why don't you check your watch?" Joe suggested trying to sound innocent but succeeding in sounding amused.

Frank glanced at his watch then frowned at Joe again, "Why didn't you wake me up? Anytime before eleven thirty would have been nice." he said pointedly.

"You were up before eleven thirty." Joe pointed out, "You've already taken a shower and gotten dressed and it's only eleven forty-five now so…"

"You know it only takes me about twenty minutes to do all that." Frank said rolling his eyes.

"That's still before eleven thirty." Joe said with a grin, "You should get some coffee Frank." he added when Frank still looked like he was considering hitting him.

Frank just shook his head and went back into the kitchen to finish fixing his coffee. When he went to put the creamer in though he found that the creamer that was sitting on the counter (that by all appearances Joe had used) had gone out of date two years before. "Uh… Joe? You didn't use the creamer that's sitting on the counter did you?" he called over his shoulder a little nervously.

"Yeah… Why?" Joe called back starting to feel sick to his stomach, he wondered if having gotten the donuts at that new shop had something to do with it. Or maybe it was the fact that he'd had three cups of coffee (with lots of creamer and sugar) and eight donuts that was the problem.

"You didn't check the expiration date on it did you?" Frank asked then answered his own question, "No you couldn't have or you wouldn't have used creamer that went out of date two years ago." he said as he tossed the offending creamer into the trash.

Joe who had just taken a sip of his coffee in the hopes that it would help settle his stomach spat that sip back into his cup when he heard what Frank had said, "What was that doing in the cabinet to begin with?" he asked as he brought his cup into the kitchen and poured it down the sink.

"Who knows… I must have missed it when I cleaned them out last, and considering how old it is Chet may have seen it and thought it was a science experiment or something." Frank suggested as he searched the cabinets for more creamer, then he glanced over his shoulder at Joe. "Are you all right? You look a little green." he said worriedly.

"I don't feel too good." Joe said pressing a hand to his jumpy stomach, "I think a ate too many donuts…"

"How much of that creamer did you have?" Frank asked, both his search for fresher creamer and his irritation at his late start forgotten in his worry for his little brother.

"I don't know… That was my fourth cup of coffee." Joe said leaning back against the counter with a grimace, he felt like he was about to throw up.

Frank studied him as he figured up how much creamer Joe put into each cup of coffee, it added up to a good bit but probably not enough to cause trouble. "Do we need to go get your stomach pumped?" he asked in an offhand manner though he was actually half serious. In all honesty there were times that he thought the hospital should give them discounts, or coupons, or something just for being such frequent costumers. Instead they just get higher insurance rates, it seemed kind of unfair considering that they usually got hurt on a case… Well Frank is almost always on a case when he gets hurt, Joe it seems is able to get himself hurt no matter what's going on. As the creamer may be proving, apparently in a very uncomfortable manner.

Joe made a face at Frank and stumbled out to curl up on the couch still holding his stomach, Frank followed him out then went into the bathroom. He grabbed the small trashcan from in there and after tying off the full bag that had been in it and putting a fresh one in he went out and set it by Joe, he put the bag of trash by the door to take out later. Then he went into the kitchen to finally finish fixing his coffee, only to find that his cup was cold so he poured that down the sink and started looking for more creamer before he even bothered to pour himself a fresh cup. Somehow he didn't think they were going to find out what Nancy was up to that day.

-----------------------------------

Nancy hung up the phone in the hotel room and prepared to call yet another hospital but was only half-way through the number when her cell phone rang, she snatched it up so fast that she answered it almost before it started the second ring. "Hello? Bess?"

"_Nancy?" _Bess's voice came over the line, she sounded a little tired but ok.

Nancy sighed in relief before she answered, "Bess where are you, where have you been? I've been trying to track you down all day!" she asked quickly.

"_I've been at the hospital-" _Bess started.

"What?! Why What happened?" Nancy asked instantly scared for her friend.

"_The cab I took last night when I went to get our dinner was hit by a drunk. Don't worry though we're fine, the driver of the cab just has a concussion and the drunk is in custody. All he ended up with was a few scratches." _Bess finished calmingly.

"What about you Bess? Are you alright?" Nancy asked pointedly, having noticed that Bess hadn't said how she fared in the crash.

"_Well, other than the broken leg I'm fine." _Bess said cheerfully, _"You'll sign my cast right?"_

"Of course Bess, do you want me to come to the hospital and ride back to the hotel with you?" Nancy asked worriedly.

"_Please? I don't think I really like the idea of going around the city alone at the moment." _Bess answered.

"All right, which hospital are you at?" Nancy asked then nodded and wrote it down when Bess told her. "I'll be there as soon as I can, when will they release you?"

"_They've released me already, I'm just waiting for you now." _Bess said then they said goodbye and hung up. Nancy grabbed the paper where she had written the name of the hospital and started out the door, she'd stop by the police station on the way there to pick up the new file from Mahoy since she probably wouldn't get a chance to stop afterward.

--------------------------------------

"Are you feeling any better Joe?" Frank asked crouching beside the couch where Joe was lying largely curled into a ball. Joe shook his head but didn't say anything because he was pretty sure that if he opened his mouth he would finally throw up and since he hadn't yet he really didn't want to now. Frank went and grabbed the thermometer from the bathroom, when he came back out he tapped Joe gently on the shoulder with it to signal his little brother to use it. Joe sat up reluctantly but he took the thermometer and stuck it under his tongue obligingly enough.

Frank went to grab his lap top out of his bed room while they waited for the thermometer to beep, since there wasn't too much they could do while Joe was sick he was going to check his e-mail. He started setting it up on the dining room table, "Put it back in your mouth Joe." he said without looking up from what he was doing.

Joe scowled slightly but did what he was told, sometimes he wondered if thermometers were designed to be uncomfortable. No matter how he held it, it poked the underside of his tongue painfully.

------------------------------------

Nancy came out of the police station with the file on the latest murder in her bag and troubling thoughts in her mind, if what she'd heard while she was in there was true then this case was about to get much harder.

* * *

_**Author's Note: **__Sorry about the delay between the last chapter and this one, I'm experiencing a mild case of writers block. Also, do any of you happen to know the first name of Mayor Hill from the Nancy Drew Case Files? It's for another story I'm writing, it seems like I remember it being Caroline but I'm not entirely certain and that one was one I borrowed from the library so I can't go check right now._


	8. Broken Detectives

_**Disclaimer: **I don't own it and probably never will._

* * *

Nancy's cab stopped in front of the entrance to the hospital a little over an hour after Bess had called her. After paying the driver Nancy went inside to track down Bess, mentally kicking herself for not having asked where in the hospital to meet her friend. She walked by the fracture room despite the fact that she knew they had to have finished setting Bess's leg by now. After that she went to the desk to ask if they knew where to find Bess Marvin. 

"Ms. Marvin was released a little bit ago…I can have her paged if you think she's still here." The nurse said after checking the computer quickly.

"I know she's still here, she called me from here to come meet her. The thing is she doesn't have a cell phone at the moment so I can't find out where in here she is, and I forgot to ask where in here to meet her when she called me before." Nancy responded.

-----------------------------

After about a minute the thermometer beeped and Frank started for the couch to see what it said. "99 even." Joe called over his shoulder after taking it out of his mouth, but Frank knew his brother and snatched it out of his grasp to read for himself: 101.5.

"Nice try little brother." Frank said as he went to put the thermometer away.

"You're going to be hovering over me all day aren't you?" Joe asked sullenly, he hated being sick but he hated being babied even more. The two together were unbearable.

"I don't hover, and besides it's my job." Frank responded as he went back to setting his laptop up on the dining room table, he noticed the look Joe sent his way but chose to ignore it. After all, it would be wrong to smack his brother when said brother was sick.

"And here I thought you were a detective." Joe muttered , annoyed.

Luckily Frank knew that Joe got moody when he was sick and let it slide, mostly. "I've had the job of 'big brother' longer, I happen to think I'm good at it." he said jokingly as the laptop booted up.

Joe slid down lower on the couch again and muttered something that sounded like 'Irritating at it.'.

"Part of the job." Frank said calmly, after a short while a sound behind Frank let him know that poor Joe had finally lost whatever was left of his breakfast, he winced and glanced over his shoulder but didn't say anything. He could hear that Joe was not all right, though he may actually feel better after that.

-----------------------------

"Nancy! I was just about to call you again." A voice said right after the elevator doors opened.

Nancy turned around to see Bess standing behind her on a pair of crutches she'd had the foresight to buy from the hospital, she knew all ready that she probably wouldn't still be in New York when the time came to get the cast off and return the crutches if she'd rented them. "Bess! Are you all right? How do you feel?" Nancy asked rushing over.

"I'm fine Nancy, I don't know how much fun I'll be for awhile though." Bess said jokingly as they started slowly working their way towards the doors. Bess had some bruises besides the broken leg but Nancy was really all that surprised, once you've broken a bone you don't worry so much about bruises.

"Did you get the new file from Mahoy yet?" Bess asked as they walked in order to make conversation that wasn't about the accident. She was starting to understand why Nancy changed the subject whenever she was hurt, it made you feel the pain that you had forgotten about when you talk about it.

"Yeah, I picked it up on the way over." Nancy responded, she understood perfectly what Bess was doing and why she was doing it.

"So you haven't read it yet?" Bess asked slightly disappointed, she'd been hoping to get Nancy to start telling her about the new file and get her mind off the fact that she could feel last nights crash in every inch of her body.

"Not yet, no. But I did hear from one of the officers near Mahoy's office that Mahoy is pushing to have Mr. Hardy arrested." Nancy said as she held one of the doors open for Bess to go through.

"What?!" Bess asked incredulously, "Have they really found enough evidence against Mr. Hardy to make an arrest?"

"I don't know… I don't think so but I don't know what they could be keeping back from me." Nancy said miserably, she didn't like the idea of explaining to Frank and Joe that she had not only been working a case behind their back but that she couldn't even solve in time to keep their Dad out of jail.

"If Mr. Hardy is arrested then there is no way they're going to keep Frank and Joe out of it." Bess said worriedly as Nancy hailed a cab. "Or keep them from finding out that we're working on that very case."

"I know Bess… But right now I'm not sure what we can do about it." Nancy said as a cab stopped in front of them and they had to figure out how to get Bess and her crutches in and still leave enough room for Nancy to get in with her. It wasn't easy but after almost ten minutes they managed to work out a mildly uncomfortable but useable seating arrangement.

-----------------------------

"Feel better Joe?" Frank asked as he deleted junk e-mails and tried to sort through for the important stuff mixed in with it. It had been about ten minutes since Joe had lost his lunch and Frank felt that it might be a good idea to check on him now.

"Actually I do feel a little better." Joe responded though it sounded a little like he was sulking, "I hate getting sick." he added giving the reason for the sulky voice without really even realizing that he was sulking at all.

"Who doesn't?" Frank asked before a message from Nancy caught his eye, "Hey Joe, I just found something that might take your mind off being sick for awhile."

"Well? What is it? Are we about to get another case?" Joe asked from the couch, though now he was looking over the back of the couch and towards Frank's seat at the dining room table.

"No case. It's an e-mail from Nancy, it doesn't look like good news though." Frank said after quickly skimming over the message. "Bess broke her leg, and apparently we aren't the only ones Ned is hanging up on at the moment."

"Wait… Back up. How did Bess break her leg?" Joe asked curiously, Ned hanging up on them was not really unexpected. He'd never seemed to like either of them but he seemed to have a special hatred of Frank who had made that last call, and Ned hanging up on Nancy wasn't all that shocking to Joe either since he had been wondering for awhile now how those two had managed for as long as they had when what each of them wanted so different.

"It doesn't say… Which is odd actually. There really isn't any information in this except for the news that Bess broke her leg and that Nancy and Ned are having trouble again." Frank said as he reread the short e-mail.

"When are they not? That relationship has been on the rocks for the last three years or so hasn't it?" Joe said conversationally from the couch.

Frank shrugged, he'd noticed but didn't really think it was his place to comment since he and Callie had had the same problem and they had only broken up a couple weeks before he had left for Peru. "If it makes them happy." was all he was willing to say on the matter.

"That's just it though… I'm not sure they are. I talked to Bess a lot before we went to Peru, and naturally the conversation eventually turned to mutual acquaintances." Joe said thoughtfully.

Frank scowled slightly but Joe had succeeded in grabbing his attention, "Well?" he asked irritably.

Joe fought the urge to smile, this was one of the few amusing things you can do while down with a virus. Or food poisoning but he felt that the fever indicated that a virus was the culprit and not the outdated creamer. You didn't have to be mobile to annoy your older brother into a conversation he didn't want to have anything to do with, especially when you had information you'd sitting on for over six months. "It seems that at that point in time Nancy and Ned were hardly talking, and when they did most anyone within a block of them was likely to hear what they were discussing first hand. Bess actually thought they were about to break up but somehow they stuck together, she said it was probably more out of habit than anything else and since she's one of the first people Nancy calls when she's upset I'm inclined to believe her." he said with a slight smirk.

"Did it ever occur to you that they stuck it out because they love each other?" Frank asked as he turned back to his computer, however he was still thinking about what Joe had said. He was also wondering why he had to hear all this from Joe months after the fact when there had been a time when Nancy would have let her know what was bothering her when he had spoken to her, and he remembered speaking to her around that time. He'd told her about breaking up with Callie because it had actually come as kind of a shock to him that Callie had wanted marriage whether it was to him or not, but Nancy hadn't said anything about her own problems with Ned even though Frank had asked her what was wrong.

"If they loved each other that much wouldn't they have found some sort of compromise to this problem years ago? Bess said that most of those arguments were about Nancy's detective work, something they've been arguing about for almost as long as I've known them." Joe said calmly, he wasn't letting go of this one since he was certain he was right.

"Callie and I had come to compromise and look where that landed us." Frank pointed out.

"Yeah, but personally I think Callie's biological clock was on overdrive." Joe said flippantly, "Who wants to get married this young?"

"Normally I'd hit you for that no matter who you said it about…"

"Thank god you won't hit me when I'm sick." Joe quipped.

"But in this case I kind of agree with you, she hadn't really known that guy very long when they walked down the aisle." Frank finished smiling at Joe's renewed sense of humor, it was always trying when Joe was moody for a long period of time. It tended to make everyone around him moody as well.

--------------------------------

"Ok, that's done." Nancy said as she finally sent the e-mail she had been working on for roughly half an hour, it was surprising hard to write a message that didn't sound like it was hiding something without actually giving any information about the fact that she was on a case. Especially when she was sending that message to Frank, who normally would be one of the people she would call for advice if she needed it. She could have saved herself a lot of trouble by not e-mailing him at all but she was pretty sure that Joe for one would be mad if they didn't let him know that Bess had been hurt, and Nancy was pretty certain that Joe hardly ever checked his e-mail so e-mailing Frank seemed like the better option.

"I never knew it was so hard to tell someone something without actually telling them anything." Bess said from her position on the bed, they were back at the hotel and she had just listened to several variations of the e-mail that Nancy had finally sent to Frank before both of them had been satisfied that it didn't say anything they didn't want it to.

"I know, I think I understand how we get so many clues from those letters the bad guys keep sending me to warn me off cases now. I'd always thought they were just stupid before but it's a lot harder than it seems like it would be not give anything away." Nancy said rubbing her neck, then her computer indicated that she had a new e-mail. She read it then deleted it deciding that she might claim that never received it, it had been from Frank asking why she was in New York and why she hadn't called them yet.

"What is it?" Bess asked seeing the way Nancy tensed when she read the message.

"Nothing… It was from Frank." Nancy explained but she was still frowning, she wondered how long she could realistically keep this from them.

Bess winced slightly, "This is not going to be easy." she said though it was kind of stating the obvious.

Nancy nodded her agreement with that statement and shut down her computer, "Do you want to read the new file first?" she asked politely though she was itching to see what it said.

"No… I think I'll read my magazine." Bess said, she could see how eager Nancy was to see that new file and she wasn't nearly as eager so it wasn't a hardship to defer the first reading to her friend.

"Thanks Bess." Nancy said as she reached for the file.

"No problem." Bess said as she pretended to read her magazine, actually she was thinking about how much trouble they'd had getting her into the cab and she'd needed help to get back out anyway. How were they going to investigate anything like that? And she knew herself well enough to know she'd go quietly crazy if she had to stay in the hotel for the entire investigation.

* * *

_**Author's Note: **__Ok, the pace of this story has slowed a bit since I first started it but please remember that I started it with a vague idea for a story behind a single scene which I haven't had a chance to write yet. I want to thank my Beta _beatlechicksteph_ for checking this and the last several chapters for errors for me._


	9. Active Avoidance

_**Disclaimer:** I have no groundsto sue anyone over copyright infringement._

* * *

Nancy tossed the file aside, "There isn't much in there." she said sounding a little downhearted. "It's pretty much the same as all the other files we've read, just with a couple different names." 

Bess looked up from her magazine and at Nancy, "I'm sorry Nan." she said sympathetically.

Nancy shook her head, "We'll have to find some way to get more information…" she muttered thoughtfully.

Bess went back to her magazine without commenting, she didn't think now was the time to let Nancy know what she planned to do.

--------------------------

"Well at least your appetite is back." Frank said as he took Joe's soup bowl into the kitchen. It was nearly eight pm but Frank had finally gotten Joe to eat something, it had been a long day for both of them. But they held out hope that Joe would be better by morning! It was about all that had kept them from killing each other, it was bad enough when one of them got hurt on a case but it was ten times worse when there wasn't a case to worry about and take their minds off it.

"Thanks Frank. You know, you are pretty good at the big brother job." Joe said.

"Thanks… I think." Frank said remembering that he had said earlier that being irritating was part of that job. Joe grinned, and changed the channel from Yogi Bear to the Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy. Frank hadn't demanded the remote all day and Joe was taking advantage of it while he could, otherwise they'd be watching the news.

Suddenly Frank set the laptop on the coffee table, "Check your e-mail Joe." Frank said simply as he snatched the remote.

"Why?" Joe asked as he watched Billy and Mandy get replaced by a weather guy from the weather channel. Frank needed a life.

"Because I think if Nancy is trying to hide something from us but doesn't want us to know she's hiding something she's more likely to let something slip when e-mailing you since you hardly ever check your e-mail." Frank pointed out, "She may have told you how Bess broke her leg, and having that information might give us a clue as what they're doing in New York."

"Okay, okay." Joe said and did what he was told, but he made sure to mutter while he did so, just to irritate Frank. It worked. "Bess e-mailed me." he said aloud after a couple minutes.

"What does it say?" Frank asked glancing over, he muted the TV as he asked.

"It says she broke her leg because the cab she was in got hit by a drunk driver, the cab driver got a mild concussion and the drunk was arrested after they found out that he was hardly injured at all. That's odd, apparently Nancy wasn't with her. I wonder why." Joe said reading the e-mail.

Frank frowned, "That is odd, and doesn't give us any clue as to what they're up to." he said thoughtfully. "Think we should try George again?" he asked after a couple moments.

"That didn't work so well the last time we tried it." Joe pointed out as he finished up with his e-mail. "I still think she was trying to avoid answering the question, no-one practices for a race that late."

"True but I don't think we have much else to work with right now." Frank said as he picked up the remote to turn the sound back on.

"Hey, here's an e-mail from Nancy! It's got her cell phone number in it." Joe said grinning. "Looks like we have something else to work with after all." he said looking at Frank.

"That's true." Frank said grinning back at Joe.

--------------------------------------

Nancy's cell phone rang and she picked it up, luckily she checked who was calling before she answered. "Damn it! Joe checked his e-mail." she said tossing the phone back onto the desk where it continued to ring and vibrate.

"But he never checks his e-mail more than once a month!" Bess said incredulously, "And he responded to my e-mail telling him about my phone yesterday!"

"I guess we're just unlucky today." Nancy said scowling at her phone until it stopped ringing then she sighed. "I'm going to go take a shower." she said as she started for their bathroom.

A minute later Nancy's phone started ringing again.

--------------------------------------

Joe hung up the phone after their second attempt to call Nancy's cell phone, "Still no answer, do you think she's avoiding us?" he asked.

"Don't get paranoid Joe, she's probably taking a shower, or she's asleep, or something." Frank said but he was frowning too. "We'll try again in the morning."

-----------------------------------

**Next Day**

-----------------------------------

Nancy sighed, "Are they ever going to give up?" she asked after the fourth time she picked up her ringing cell phone only to find that it was Frank and Joe calling.

"Would you?" Bess asked with a shrug, she was finally reading that new file that Mahoy had sent and had to agree with Nancy that there wasn't much there that wasn't in the other files.

"True." Nancy agreed giving her phone a mistrustful glance as it started ringing again, but when she picked it up to check who it was she saw it was George. "Hello?"

"_Hey Nancy, how's the case going?" _George asked cheerfully.

"Not so great, I'm not any closer to solving it, Bess broke her leg in a car crash, and Joe checked his e-mail so now they're calling me." Nancy responded. "It's George." she added in response to Bess's questioning look.

"_Yikes… Sounds bad. Is Bess ok? Did the crash have anything to do with the case?" _George said after a moment.

"Bess is fine, and not that we can tell. It gets worse though, they're thinking about arresting Mr. Hardy, and you know there'll be no way to keep Frank and Joe out of this if that happens." Nancy added.

"_So what's your plan?" _George asked after absorbing that shocking news.

"Try to get into Mr. Hardy's office to see if there's anything in there to clear him… I'm just not sure how I'm going to do it yet." Nancy said thoughtfully.

"_Well I'll leave you to your planning, I was just calling hoping to hear that you had solved the case and were heading home. Tell Bess I said to be careful, and that goes for you too Nan!" _George said with a small sigh.

"Bye George." Nancy said and hung up.

"You're going to break into Mr. Hardy's office?" Bess asked in shock.

"I don't see much choice." Nancy said frowning unhappily.

--------------------------------

"Ok, now I really think she's avoiding us." Joe said after their fourth attempt to call Nancy that morning.

"I'm starting to agree with you…" Frank thought for a moment and then added; "You haven't sent her your new cell phone number yet have you?"

"No." Joe said as he started looking for his new cell phone, he'd only gotten it a couple days before and hadn't really done much with it yet. Really he wasn't used to it yet, but he understood what Frank was suggesting: the new phone was from a new company so it had a new number that Nancy wouldn't recognize.

Frank watched Joe search for a few moments before he said anything, "You've already lost it haven't you?" he asked in a neutral tone.

"I don't want to talk about it Frank." Joe said as he kept looking, he missed the smirk that crossed Frank's face as he started to help his brother look.

--------------------------------

"Nancy?" Bess said tentatively, she was finally going to let her friend know what she intended to do.

"Yeah Bess?" Nancy responded without looking up from the file she was reading for the third time.

"I… I think I should go back to River Heights." Bess said after a moments hesitation.

Nancy spun in her chair, "What? Why?" Nancy asked shocked.

"I'm not going to be much use with a broken leg Nancy, we could hardly get me back here from the hospital! And if I stay in the room you know as well as I do that I'll go crazy. It's the only move that makes sense Nancy." Bess said miserably.

Nancy sighed, she couldn't deny that Bess had a point. "I'll get your ticket." she said dejectedly as she turned to her laptop.

--------------------------

"Found it!" Joe called out as he held up his phone, it had slipped between the cushions of the couch.

"Good, call Nancy." Frank said snapping shut the drawer he had been looking through.

"I am, I am." Joe said as he programmed Nancy's new number into his phone.

"_Hello?" _Nancy answered after a couple rings.

"Hi Nancy, it's Joe. Frank's here too." Joe said with a grin, then he heard a thump that had him frowning slightly. "What was that?"

"_Nothing… I just stubbed my toe." _Nancy replied but something in her tone didn't sound quite right. _"I didn't recognize your number, did you get a new phone or something?"_

"Yes, I did. My last one got shot while we were in Peru." Joe said still frowning.

"_That explains why Bess was complaining about not being able to get in touch with you last week." _Nancy said laughing, but Joe thought the laugh sounded oddly forced.

"Are you all right Nancy? You sound odd." Joe said suspiciously.

"_I'm fine, I'm not sure how strong my signal is though." _Nancy said sounding as though she was probably shrugging.

"What are you and Bess doing in New York anyway?" Joe asked out of the blue, hoping to surprise her into answering. He ignored the look Frank sent him.

"_I have to take Bess to the airport, I'll talk to you later Joe." _Nancy said before she hung up.

"She hung up on me." Joe said to Frank as he set his phone aside.

"I kinda figured she would, way to be subtle bro." Frank said dryly.

-----------------------------

Nancy rolled her eyes as she put her phone in her pocket, really, you'd think a detective would have more tact than that. "Are you ready yet Bess?" she asked as she had not been lying when she had said she needed to get Bess to the airport.

"Almost Nancy." Bess responded as she packed the last of her things, her plane didn't take off until just after noon but they both knew they needed to get there pretty early if they wanted to get Bess through security in time to actually board her plane before it took off. Once she was done packing the two girls started out of the room. "So who was on the phone?"

"Joe." Nancy responded with a frown.

"That explains why you kicked the poor desk." Bess said as they got on the elevator. "I was kind of wondering.

-----------------------------

"What could Nancy be doing that she'd be so determined to keep it from us?" Joe asked a short while after his not-so-successful call to her.

"If we knew, it wouldn't be so irritating." Frank responded, "This is not like her at all."

"You think someone might be threatening her?" Joe asked though when he thought back he couldn't think of a single time that Nancy had reacted like this to a threat. But then again he couldn't really think of anything else that might get a reaction like this from her.

"I can't see her reacting like this if they were threatening her, she'd be more likely to do the opposite of what they told her to. Maybe if they were threatening Bess or George, or her Dad but not her personally." Frank said thoughtfully.

"If someone's threatening them we should try to help…" Joe said worriedly.

"We don't know who would threatening them, or about what, or even if their being threatened at all." Frank pointed out.

Joe scowled, "Well I can't think of any other reason for what's going on that makes any sense!" he snapped. He didn't really mean to snap at Frank but he was feeling tense, usually Nancy being in town meant the three of them (four if she brought one of her friends) would end up involved with an interesting case or much more rarely enjoy a few visits to some club or another and other places of interest around New York. Have what they considered a good time in any case, not try to chase Nancy down to find out what's going on after finding that she was in town by sheer luck!

Frank's eyes flashed slightly, his nerves were frayed almost to the breaking point too, but he held his temper since he understood his brother's feelings. "There isn't anything we can do unless we find more about what's going on with her." he said reasonably.

"And of course we can't do that unless we know more about what's going with her." Joe said disgustedly.

Frank though for a moment, "Did Nancy say anything before she hung up?" he asked just to fill the silence. He kind of agreed with his brother on how difficult this was turning out to be.

"She said she had to bring Bess to the airport." Joe said as he also tried to puzzle out somethingfor them to do.

Frank grinned suddenly, "Well that gives us something to check out at least." he said cheering up a little.

"What do you mean?" Joe asked not really seeing the connection since he was still trying to see a way to wheedle the information out of Nancy over the phone and wasn't really thinking about the airport.

"Well if Bess broke her leg and she's now going to the airport she's probably going back to River Heights, and that means we know where they're going even if we don't know when." Frank said still grinning.

"That's right, they always use the same airport for that don't they?" Joe said catching on to what his brother was thinking.

"They always have, Nancy knows several of the pilots, and I think she knows most of the flight attendants too. Plus they usually have the best rate for that particular trip." Frank answered.

"So we'll be spending the day at the airport? How will we find them once we're there?" Joe asked.

"We'll figure that out once we get there." Frank responded then seeing his brother's hesitant look, "The other option is stay here and worry." he pointed out.

"Lets go, the may have a morning flight." Joe said grabbing his wallet.

--------------------------

Bess leaned back in her chair while she waited for her plane to board, Nancy was sitting nearby but they weren't talking much. Nancy had been quiet ever since she'd talked to Joe earlier in the morning. "I think this case is cursed." Bess said eventually.

"We don't seem to be having much luck do we?" Nancy responded with an wry smile.

"Plenty of luck, none of it good." Bess corrected, she wasn't happy about going home, but none the less George would be picking her up from the airport when she arrived.

"I don't know about that… That café is good." Nancy said with a grin for Bess. "It just doesn't have anything to do with the case."

"I think my statement stands Nan." Bess said laughing. Then she grew sober, "Do you think they'll really arrest him?"

"I don't think they have enough evidence to make any arrests but they may not be telling me everything, actually I'd be shocked if I found out they were." Nancy replied frowning slightly. "I'm still kind of surprised that they hired me to begin with."

"Why? You're a great detective." Bess said reassuringly then Nancy helped her up as they called for her plane to board.

"Thanks Bess." Nancy said as they walked toward the ticket taker.

"So where are you going once I'm on the plane?" Bess asked cheerfully.

"I'm going to go talk to Mahoy again, I want to see if I can get any more information from him." Nancy said with a small frown.

-----------------------------

Joe waited while Bess boarded the plane since what he had just overheard was troubling him enough that he was afraid that if he went up to them right then Nancy would read his face and take off again. That name seemed somehow familiar though.

* * *

_**Author's Note: **__I just want to thank everyone who has read this far and of course my Beta _beatlechicksteph_ for putting up with me through all this._


	10. More Mahoy

**Chapter Ten**

_**Disclaimer: **__If I owned it I'd be writing the real thing.

* * *

_

Fenton Hardy was taking a lunch break and watching the news when he saw a bulletin about the 'seventh' cop shooting, he knew from what he'd heard from one of his contacts in the police department, before they had started looking so closely at him, that there was in fact one murder that was connected to the rest that the reporters never got wind of, so this one was in fact the eighth. He sighed and told his secretary to go home for the day, he had a feeling they would be closing early. Ian Mahoy might have an intellect rivaled only by garden tools, but with eight dead cops on his hands, a talking monkey could get the chief to support an arrest warrant, and probably a judge to sign one if someone pointed out the right judge to ask.

While he was waiting for Mahoy to manage that warrant he worked on his latest case, just because it was likely that he was about to be arrested didn't mean he should take the day off. It was entirely possible that he was wrong and Mahoy wouldn't be able to get the warrant signed, or he may not even want to arrest Fenton at all. After all not everybody held grudges like that, and Mahoy might even see that it's not Fenton's fault that he was blamed for not noticing that his partner was on the take. Fenton didn't really see why he was blamed either, he was hardly the first not to notice something like that. Though it hardly helped his case that he had been dating his partner at the time and still hadn't noticed anything was up. Actually the fact that he had been dating his partner was probably a large portion of the reason he had gotten into so much trouble, the department kind of frowned on that sort of thing. Dating other cops was fine, dating your partner was not.

Fenton looked up as Mahoy came into his office, "Hello Ian, or should I say Lieutenant? Since I'm guessing this isn't a personal visit." he said to the man that headed the small group of officers.

-----------------------------

Joe waited until after Bess was on the plane and Nancy had moved to the window to wait for the takeoff before he approached her. "Hey Nancy." he said with a grin.

Nancy spun around to face Joe almost like he had poked her with a cattle prod, "Hey Joe, you startled me." she said with a forced sounding laugh.

"I can see that. You seem jumpy Nan." Joe said as he came up to stand beside her and look out the window.

"Ned's been complaining about my detective work again." Nancy said evading an actual response.

"That has never made you this jumpy before." Joe pointed out, turning his gaze to her profile. Nancy was gazing intently out the window though.

"Well… Things are just adding up." Nancy said slowly.

"Like what?" Joe asked hiding his worry as much as he could, he was hoping Nancy would tell him even if she didn't want to.

"I can't talk about it Joe." Nancy said as she stepped back from the window, and Joe. "I have some things I need to do, see you around." she said before rushing off. Joe started to follow but Nancy was lost in a crowd of people almost before he had realized that she'd moved, sighing he called Frank to let his brother know what he'd just found out.

-----------------------------

Nancy hurried to the taxi line to wait for a chance to get away from the airport before her bad luck escalated and she was faced with both Hardy brothers or something equally catastrophic. It wouldn't have been so bad if it hadn't been so obvious that Joe knew something was up, but at least Frank hadn't been there to make things even more difficult. If she'd been that transparent to Joe she shuddered to think of how much his brother would see. She and Frank had always shared a certain bond that had been a saving grace on several cases but could spell serious trouble on this one.

Nancy sighed in relief as her turn for a taxi rolled around and she could finally leave the airport, and she hadn't seen anything more of either Joe or Frank so she thought her luck might be turning around.

--------------------------------

Frank walked up to Joe who was still standing at the window where he had spoken to Nancy. "What's up Joe?" he asked as he came up to stand beside his little brother.

"I overheard Bess mention a case and Nancy mention a possible arrest, neither sounded happy." Joe said turning away from the window to face his brother.

"Well that not like Nancy, she's usually thrilled to be on a case." Frank said frowning, "Did you hear anything else?"

Joe ran a hand through his hair as he tried to remember as much of the conversation as he could, "Someone named Mahoy was mentioned… I think that's where Nancy was going next." he said but he couldn't remember anything else since the usual airport sounds had made it difficult to hear much of what his friends had been talking about.

Frank's frown deepened, "Where have I heard that name before?" he asked thoughtfully.

"I don't know but it sounds familiar to me too." Joe said as the two brothers started working their way towards the exit.

-----------------------

Nancy walked into Lieutenant Mahoy's office, "I need to talk to you." she said without preamble. "Are you pushing for a warrant to arrest Fenton Hardy?" she asked after closing the door behind her and though Mahoy gestured her towards a chair she didn't sit.

"I am. The evidence points to him Miss Drew. I understand your distaste at the idea that one of your colleagues could be a murderer but the evidence doesn't lie." Mahoy said in a soothing voice, though he neglected to mention the fact that Fenton Hardy was already in a holding cell downstairs.

"I'd hardly call him a colleague." Nancy said coldly, "And the evidence I saw pointed to at least a dozen cops as well as Mr. Hardy, he wasn't the only one who knew all the victims." she added.

"We aren't required to give you all the evidence Ms. Drew." Mahoy said, his tone matching hers now.

"Then I fail to see how I'm expected to be of any use to you during this case." Nancy responded, her eyes flashed but her voice stayed level and controlled.

"I don't see it either, but the chief said to hire you." Mahoy said though he hadn't seemed to mind her being there before, and he had been the one to call her in.

"Since I'm here why don't you let me do my job and give me the information I need?" Nancy asked as politely as she could.

"I'll give you what I feel like giving you!" Mahoy snapped, "Now if you don't mind I have work to do and I don't have time to baby-sit a rookie PI!"

Nancy bit her tongue to keep from saying something she would regret later and left the office, Mahoy didn't mention once during their conversation that he had arrested Fenton. Outside, she hailed a cab to go back to the hotel needing to look up the address of Mr. Hardy's office before she could do anything more. Not for the first time she wished she could work with Frank and Joe on this, it would be so much easier to just call them and ask for the address

-----------------------------

Nancy's phone rang as she entered her hotel room, and after a rather apprehensive check on who was calling her she answered. "Hello?"

"_Hey Nan, how's the case going?" _Ned asked sounding like he was smiling.

"I've had easier ones… It's good to hear your voice Ned." Nancy said smiling to herself, she was honestly happy to hear from him after the argument they had had the last time they had spoken about her coming to New York in the first place.

"_It's good to talk to you too, but I'm afraid I have a reason for calling other than that." _Ned said sounding a bit less pleased, _"Frank and Joe have been calling us, George, Hannah, and I. From what George and Hannah told me they seem very interested in why you're in New York."_

"Has anyone said anything?" Nancy asked nervously, she knew her friends would never tell a stranger why she was somewhere if she was on a case but she wasn't entirely certain what they'd do with other friends asking.

"_I don't think so… I certainly didn't since I hung up on them and they haven't called again since." _Ned said.

"Ned! That's so rude" Nancy asked torn between guilt that she had drug her other friends into helping her keep secrets from the Hardy's, and relief that hadn't told them since he had been against her taking the case to begin with.

"_Well they would have figured out something was rather if I had talked to them, it probably raised less suspicion since I hung up on them instead. Let's face it Nancy, I've never liked Frank and probably never will." _Ned said fairly reasonably.

"I suppose that's true…" Nancy said reluctantly, she had never been entirely comfortable with Ned's feelings toward Frank since Frank was one of her best friends.

"_Look Nancy, you know I have nothing against Mr. Hardy, or against Joe really, but are you certain he's innocent?" _Ned asked hesitantly, _"I mean if the cops think he did it, maybe they know something you don't."_

"I'm certain Ned. I don't think he's capable of killing people when it's not self defense." Nancy replied not quite sounding as certain as she claimed to be.

"_I just you be sure that you're looking at the evidence Nancy, and not just trusting that it's not him because he's Frank's father." _Ned said slowly knowing that this was a serious accusation for Nancy, but also knowing that she would think about it later no matter how mad she was about it now, and once she thought about it she might start to look at the case more objectively. But that knowledge did not stop him from hoping that she wouldn't blow up at him now.

"Ned Nickerson you know me better than that! I've been looking at everything they've given me, and everything I've managed to get on my own trying to figure out whether or not Fenton is guilty! I've seen nothing to say he is! All of the supposed evidence I've seen could just as easily point to another cop! As much as I hate that idea I can't discount it either! I may be wrong about Mr. hardy but I have to look for other alternatives since Mahoy seems to have developed tunnel vision and won't even look at another scenario! I may be the only one working this case that thinks Mr. Hardy is innocent!" Nancy said angrily, then she flipped her phone shut and pitched it across the room before she could stop herself. The phone hit the wall and promptly broke in half, it would seem that flip phones were not designed to be used as projectiles.

-----------------------------

Frank leaned back in his seat, he and Joe were eating lunch at a small diner and trying to remember where they had heard the name 'Mahoy' before. "Maybe Dad mentioned?" Joe said finally, he hadn't exactly given up on remembering but he was certainly having trouble.

"Maybe… But I don't think that's it." Frank said frowning, "I don't think that where I heard it anyway." he thought for another moment, "Could it have been on one of our old cases?" he asked thoughtfully.

"Who knows? Is it even possible to remember all the names we've heard on all those cases?" Joe asked in an almost pained tone.

Frank laughed, "I don't know, if it is it takes a better memory than mine." he said. "Come on, let's go home and check our files. If this Mahoy was closely connected to one of our cases he should be in there." he said as he stood up.

Joe groaned but stood up as well, he hated research but he saw where it was necessary sometimes. Just because it was necessary did not mean he had to like it, it just meant that he had to do it and do it thoroughly. "Why don't we stop by Dad's office before we do that?" he suggested, "If doesn't know then we've only lost a few minutes, if he does we've saved hours."

Frank chuckled at Joe's rather transparent attempt to avoid research, but he couldn't dispute the logic. "Okay Joe,

-----------------------------

Nancy's cab pulled up in front of the building that held Mr. Hardy's office, it had taken her awhile to find the address but once she had it hadn't taken that long for the cab driver to find it. Though she had stopped for lunch at the A taste of France Café before she'd started out she was still making pretty good time and it was only a little after three thirty now.

Once she was inside she took out the paper she had written the office number on, it was on the fourth floor. She walked over to the elevators and started up, she knew that Mr. Hardy would never let her search his office. But she thought that getting an idea of the layout of the place before she broke in was a good idea, but she really hoped that she wouldn't have to break in at all. There was always a chance that the cops would get a hot lead on the case without her help and for once she sincerely hoped they would!

When she got to the door she found it closed and the lights inside off, she frowned and knocked first wondering if maybe he was working on paperwork today. After her second knock went unanswered she thought back to her conversation with Mahoy, and the slightly smug look on his face that she hadn't really noticed at the time; Could that have been caused by having made an arrest? Even if the arrest was of an innocent man? A man that worked in a field where an arrest, even a false one, could ruin him?

Nancy sighed and looked around, it seemed that the only other office on this floor was vacant. It didn't have any sign by the door, and it looked pretty deserted anyway. She fingered her cell phone and briefly considered calling Frank and asking for the key, but she quickly rejected the idea. If she asked for the key she'd have to tell him why, and she couldn't do that. She took another moment to berate herself for turning down Mr. Hardy's offer to give her a key, he had suggested it since if anything happened to him it was quite likely that Frank and Joe would call her anyway and he thought that if they did she may need to get into his office. She had turned it down because she felt that he should keep the number of keys to a minimum, and at the time she had thought that if she needed to get into his office then something would have happened to him and she'd be working with Frank and Joe ergo; able to ask one of them for their key!

She sighed again as she slipped her lock pick kit from her pocket and knelt by the door, it would seem that now was as good a time as ever. As she worked on the lock she looked over her shoulder at the elevator and the stairs often, while she knew that she was probably being taped she was more worried about someone coming from there than a tape that she could probably deny. She was a detective, she knew that those security tapes still rarely got a good look at anyone who didn't look directly at the camera.

After only a few short moments she looked over her shoulder at the elevator again and saw that it was coming up from the lobby. She froze, then making a snap decision to listen to her gut, snatched up her things, and ran for the stairwell. Once she was there she paused, when she saw two men exit the elevator she turned and hurried downstairs until she reached the lobby and could get out of that building to hail a cab back to the hotel.

* * *

_**Author's Note: **__Ok, I finally finished this chapter. Though I'm pretty sure it was flipping me off for part of it. Better than the other fan fiction I have going though, I'm trying to get it ready to post but I'm pretty sure that it's cussing me out. Oh and for you Ned fans… He's actually going to show up in the next chapter! I am not responsible for anything happens though! Oh wait… Yes I am, still though no flaming if you don't like it. And I feel the need to say: one kiss does not make a relationship. Any way if you guys think you know who the bad guy is do you think you could PM me? I already know who it is but I want to know if it's obvious, I just don't want anyone giving it away to everyone else if anyone happens to be right. Or even if you happen to be wrong it would just be rude to make them think it was someone that it wasn't because you said so and they might end up really confused. _


	11. Lost Lawyers and Lock Picks

**Chapter Eleven:**

_**Disclaimer: **__If I owned it, you would have to wait until I was completely finished and this would be in book form.

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_

Joe thought he heard someone walking down the stairs after he'd gotten off the elevator but he didn't really think about it since it was only one set of foot steps and from what he could hear they weren't running, just walking fast. _Probably got tired of waiting for the elevator, _he thought dismissively.

"Hey Joe, it looks like Dad isn't here." Frank called from the door to Fenton's office.

"Didn't he say that he was going to have to work over time this week? Why would he cut off early today if he's that busy?" Joe asked as he walked over.

"Maybe he's just off with a client…" Frank said, "But then Marlene would still be here to take messages." he immediately contradicted himself.

"So where is he?" Joe asked, ignoring the fact that Frank had been with him most of the day and had not had much chance to find out anything that Joe didn't know.

Similarly Frank ignored the question, he'd spotted something on the floor and bent to pick it up. At first he thought that it was just a piece of wire but it took him less than a second to recognize it for what it was; a lock pick.

"I think someone has been trying to get in there Joe." He said as he held the wire up for his brother to take while he looked at the lock, it didn't look like whoever it was had gotten very far with it. "We'd better go in and see if we can spot anything out of place." he said using his key to unlock the door.

Joe nodded as he turned the lock pick over in his hand frowning, "Is Dad working on something big?" he asked as he followed Frank into the two room office area. The first room was used as a waiting room, there was a coffee maker set up in the corner right beside the water cooler and Joe knew that his Father and Marlene took turns bringing in snacks to get the pair, and any clients that had to be kept waiting, through the day. Marlene's desk wasn't far from the 'refreshment table' as she called it, and though her desk was just to the side of the door Fenton's office, which was clearly marked, there were still plenty of people who asked if they were in the right place. Marlene had this air about her that seemed to tell most people 'I'm in charge and don't you forget it!' Frank and Joe had agreed at one point that it was probably from having been an officer in the army. But no matter what it was from it occasionally made people think that she was the boss and that they had gotten the offices mixed up. It was pretty funny sometimes, especially when people argued with her over whether or not she was actually a secretary. It's almost like people think they know what she was hired to do better than she does!

Since they didn't see anything off in the outer office, or waiting room as most people tended to call it, they moved into Fenton's private office. Both men were tense as they moved since they knew there was a chance that they had been wrong and that whoever had been trying to get in had managed it, and if that was the case then they could still be there. Only after they had checked the closet and the fire escape did they relax, but even then they still checked all the locked drawers and cabinets for signs of tampering. Luckily they didn't find any. They checked the unlocked drawers as well but couldn't tell if anything had been disturbed there or not. They carefully left everything where it was and left the office thinking that they'd call their Dad that night and let him know what they had found.

Frank's cell phone rang before he could lock up the office again so he handed Joe his key and walked down the hall a couple yards to answer, "Hello?"

"_Frank?" _

"Mom? What's wrong?" Frank asked worriedly as he tried to move to where he could get a better signal.

"_They've arrested Fenton, do you remember the name of that lawyer he tracked down the runaway daughter for last year?" _Laura Hardy asked her voice getting a little clearer.

"No I don't… Why don't you call Mr. Drew? He may not be able to fly out but he may know someone closer." Frank suggested, wondering why his Father hadn't suggested the same thing.

"_The Drews are so busy right now… We really don't want to drag them into this." _Laura said sounding a little nervous to Frank but that could have been the weak connection.

"What's going on Mom?" Frank asked calmly, he knew that demanding an explanation wouldn't work with his mother but he also knew that occasionally asking for one would.

"_It's nothing Frank…Lieutenant Mahoy just wants to ask your Father a few questions about a case. I'm the one insisting we call a lawyer just in case things get dicey." _Laura said evasively, luckily the connection was so bad that Frank didn't catch the slight hesitation before she answered.

Frank paused as he heard that name from his mother's lips but didn't say anything, "Okay… What about calling Callie? I think her new husband is a lawyer and she might be willing to ask him to help." he suggested with a small shrug. Laura agreed that that was a pretty good idea and hung up saying that she was going to check it out.

When Frank hung up he found Joe leaning against a wall and looking at him quizzically, "What's going Frank? Who was on the phone?" his little brother asked curiously.

"Mom. She wanted to know if I remembered the number for the lawyer Dad helped out last year, I couldn't but she's calling Callie now. Dad's been arrested… By Lieutenant Mahoy." Frank responded.

"Dad's been what?!" Joe exclaimed incredulously, "Why the hell would anyone arrest Dad?"

"I don't know but I have a feeling that we need to find out." Frank said with a steely glint in his eyes that Joe recognized as a sure sign that his brother was well on his way to pissed off.

"Where do you suggest we start?" Joe asked as they started for the elevator.

"I think we should try to find out what Mahoy is working on right now." Frank said pushing the button to call the elevator.

"Kill two birds with one stone." Joe said philosophically as they waited, for the elevator.

"Unless Nancy was talking about a different Mahoy." Frank pointed out. By this time the elevator had arrived and they were inside and starting for the lobby.

Joe muttered something about something about a thin line between logic and pessimism, causing Frank to fight back a smirk.

--------------------------

George sat in the terminal while she waited for Bess's plane to arrive, she was glad that Ned had volunteered to ride along. She was pretty tough but getting Bess and Bess's luggage back to the apartment was hard enough when Bess was able to help, she could imagine trying to do it on her own with Bess unable to help at all and it didn't bring pleasant images to mind.

George didn't even look over when Ned came up and sat beside her, "They said any minute now." he said sounding a bit bored. He had gone off to find out when the plane was expected to land, and obviously hadn't had much luck.

"They've been saying that for nearly an hour." George complained.

"That's an airport for you George, they have no sense of time." Ned said with a laugh.

George chuckled, "That's true, I don't think I've ever been in an airport where I didn't have to wait." she agreed.

Ned started to say something then paused as an announcement came over the intercom about Bess's flight, it seemed that it had landed and would disembark very soon. "Well it's about time."

"Yeah… I bet you ten bucks that Bess comes out with a cute guy helping her." George said with her eyes on the door, they were seated pretty close to where you get on and off the plane so they would see Bess right away.

"Only an idiot would take that bet." Ned said laughing, "Bess always finds some guy or another to charm."

"In a way I kind of envy her, it must be fun to have all those guys eyeing her all the time." George said a little wryly.

"Would you really want all that attention?" Ned asked looking over at her profile.

"No I guess not… But still." George said and turned her head a little surprised by how close together they were sitting. For a moment they both froze then they simultaneously moved and closed the distance between them, the kiss wasn't deep or passionate but it was certainly more than friendly. It was also quick as it took only a second for both their brains to kick in and they realized what they were doing, once that happened they pulled back and looked away back towards where Bess would appears off the plane… Only to meet her shocked and angry gaze.

--------------------------------

Fenton sat in the interview room slightly amused that despite the fact that Mahoy had brought several officers to pick him up, he had yet to be charged with anything. Laura was calling a lawyer anyway though, personally Fenton wished that they could call Carson but professionally he felt that they should keep any and all association with the Drews quiet for awhile and, on this, Laura agreed.

It was rather inconvenient though, since it meant that his favorite defense attorney was unavailable. Well, actually Carson was about the only defense attorney he liked since he found most of the ones he came in contact with to be rather slimy. But as was usual for the Drews, Carson was an exception.

Mahoy had asked a few questions when they had first arrived but now they were waiting for Fenton to find a lawyer, a feat made more difficult by the fact that neither he nor Laura could call Carson for a suggestion. The last he had heard from Laura was that she was going to call Frank to see if he remembered the name of a lawyer had hired Fenton the year before, but Fenton didn't have high hopes that Frank would since the boys had been helping Nancy in another state during that case and despite the fact that he had mentioned the case to them, they had not been involved with it. He didn't even remember if he'd mentioned the name of the lawyer to them or not.

Fenton sighed as he waited, slightly surprised to realize that he was enough like his younger son to be bored to distraction by sitting in an interview room for hours on end. While he had been known to use the same technique when he was the interviewer, now that he was the interviewee he was starting to wonder if counted as psychological torture.

--------------------------------

Callie answered the phone and held it between her shoulder and her ear while her hands, she had been scrubbing the tub when the phone had starting ringing. "Hello?"

"_Hello Callie, it's Laura, Frank's Mom? I'm sorry to bother you like this but is Brandon's caseload really heavy right now?" _Laura asked as soon as Callie had answered.

Callie frowned, "I don't think so… What's wrong Mrs. Hardy?" she asked getting a little worried. Her husband was kind of a taboo subject in the Hardy household since she had gotten married barely a month after breaking up with Frank which had raised the question in a few of their friends as to whether or not she had been faithful to Frank, she had been but she understood why someone else might question it a little when they found out how quickly she had married. Those facts made it very odd that Laura was not only calling Callie but asking about Brandon's caseload as well.

"_I really can't say… Do you think he'd be willing to take on a case? I'm certain it won't take long, we won't hold him to it if it goes all the way to trail." _Laura said sounding rather tense.

"I'm not certain… But why don't I give you his office number and you can ask him?" Callie said grabbing her address book and flipping to the proper page.

"_I would appreciate it Callie, thanks." _Laura said simply.

--------------------------------

Once Nancy was back in her hotel room she took out her lock picking kit again and started straightening it out, she had put the picks back in rather hastily and now they were a mess. When they were all straightened out she saw that one was missing and, since she'd had this kit less than a month (she'd lost her last one in a river) she knew where she had lost it.

Only the fact that years of being a detective had honed her self control to a fine edge kept Nancy from repeating the cell phone incident with her lock pick kit, though granted the kit probably wouldn't snap in half like her phone had but the picks would probably fly everywhere which would be just as frustrating.

* * *

_**Author's Note: **__Ok, I just want to reiterate: One kiss does not make a relationship. People do some stupid things when they're stressed, or jealous, or worried, or whatever. I'm not pairing them together in this story for more than that kiss… At least I don't think I am. I don't plan on it, but then again my plans don't always work out. I won't make any promises for any future fan fictions though._

_P.S. Sorry about taking so long to update, I've been busy. I've also kind of had writer's block._


	12. Irony

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Chapter Twelve:

Disclaimer: I am mistress of a universe! Sadly it is neither the one we live in nor the Nancy Drew/Hardy Boys universe. If I could get one I'm pretty sure that I could get the other or I would no longer have any interest in acquiring it.

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Fenton looked up as the door to his interview room opened, a young man who bore a slight resemblance to Frank entered. He was shorter than Frank, and thinner as though he didn't work out as much. But the coloring was the same and he looked like he was roughly the same age. "Hi." Fenton said with a polite smile.

"Hello, I'm Brandon Mettleworth." The young man said smiling and offering a hand, "You must be Mr. Hardy."

"Fenton Hardy yes." Fenton responded shaking the offered hand, "You're Callie's husband aren't you?"

"Yes sir." Brandon said as he sat down, "Can you tell me what's going on here?"

"I've been interviewing people longer than you've been alive boy, that technique doesn't work with me." Fenton said with a smile.

"I can't help you if I don't know what's going on." Brandon tried again.

"That doesn't work either, it might have if I didn't know about the cops behind the mirror, but I do." Fenton said leaning back in his chair and enjoying the game. "In fact I've been the one behind the mirror several times in my career."

"You're in council with your attorney they can't sit in on that." Brandon said frowning.

"Not legally." Fenton agreed, the way he said it implying that he wasn't sure that that would stop Mahoy.

--

Nancy grabbed her purse and left her hotel room to go for a walk and think about her next move, she knew that by now Frank and Joe had found her lock pick. Luckily it was unlikely they'd track it to her since, while either of them may have recognized pieces from her old kit, this new one hadn't been broken in yet and she had forgotten to mention the loss of the old one to them since she had been so busy after that.

When she reached the lobby she went straight outside like she usually did, but once she was out there she didn't hail a cab but started walking down the sidewalk instead. She needed the exercise to clear her head, and she thought that walking awhile was as good a way to see part New York as any. But she found that she couldn't get her mind off the case, something was nagging at her but she couldn't quite grasp what it was. It was quite irritating actually.

--

"You know, Dad's probably out by now." Joe said as Frank parked near the police station, "You said that Mom told you that Mahoy only wanted to ask Dad a few questions and they've never lied to us before."

"They've never wanted a lawyer for when Dad was called in as an advisor either, I'm not so certain that the normal rules apply." Frank responded as he got out, "Besides you want to find out if this is the Mahoy that Nancy was talking about don't you?" he asked pointedly. Joe wasn't the only one who could use shaky logic to get what he wanted.

Joe couldn't really think of anything to say to that so he shrugged and followed Frank, just because the logic was shaky didn't mean he could argue with it. It was still logical. As they mounted the stairs to the doors of the station Joe did think of something to else say though, "You know they aren't likely to tell us if Dad is a suspect, and if Mom and Dad are trying to keep us from finding out then they aren't that likely to tell us either." he pointed out.

"Now who's being pessimistic?" Frank asked as they went inside, which caused Joe to grin.

--

"Okay, I admit it; you were right about that too. But they did tell us that Nancy had been in there so that"s something on one case anyway." Frank said as they left the police station, they had done their best to get the information they needed but they hadn't had much luck. Despite the fact that they had several friends on the force, none had seemed to know anything about what Mahoy was working on.

"I wonder if they really didn't know or if they just weren't willing to tell us?" Joe asked.

"They probably just wouldn't tell us, they never said they didn't know." Frank responded as they made their way to their van.

"True." Joe said with a sigh, "Is it just me or does everyone seem to be keeping secrets from us?" he asked after a second.

"Not everyone." Frank responded, "Just Nancy, Mom and Dad, and the police force."

Joe just stared at Frank for a moment at that statement, "You do realize that you just named most of the people we trust right?" he asked as he leaned against his open car door.

"Shut up Joe, I'm sure there is a good explanation for all of this." Frank said slamming his own door.

"If you say so." Joe muttered as he got in the van and shut his door.

--

Nancy was still turning the problem over in her head when she realized what it was she had missed before, she suddenly froze in the middle of the sidewalk as it hit her. She turned around and started walking slowly back towards the hotel, she'd have to double check of course but if she was right then there was no way that Mahoy had the right man in jail.

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Author's Note: Sorry about the incredibly short chapter, but it was all I could think of to write for it. I'm sorry I didn't update sooner but I've been really busy.


	13. Unproven Insights

Chapter Thirteen

Disclaimer: You should know by now.

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Nancy couldn't help but grin at the time of the third shooting, "I knew it! Too bad I can't use it." She said losing her grin. She leaned back in her chair as she considered the problem, after a few minutes she decided to go try Mr. Hardy's office again.

She grabbed her lock pick kit and left the hotel room before her conscience could get in the way of her breaking into the office of one of her father's friends, who also happened to be the father of two of her own friends. She was starting to wish she hadn't taken this case.

--

Frank scanned the newspaper articles while Joe sat nearby and tried not to complain about the fact that they were once again in the library doing research. Weren't they supposed to be on vacation? He knew they needed to find out everything they could about Mahoy, but didn't mean that he couldn't wish for something else to do while Frank did the research.

"I found something." Frank said after scanning an article from several years before, "Mahoy was suspected of taking bribes and conduct unbecoming of an officer." He told Joe, leaning back a little so that his brother could read the article.

"It says he was cleared on the bribes, and, ouch, convicted of conduct unbecoming." Joe read, "It doesn't say what he did, just that his partner at the time was convicted of being on the take and sentenced to jail time."

"Look who found the evidence." Frank said pointing to one of the last sentences in the article.

"Dad." Joe said, completely forgetting how annoyed he was to be here.

"Yeah, I wonder if this Mahoy held a grudge." Frank added. He knew they hadn't found much. But it was a start; it gave them something to go on and a good reason to investigate the good Lieutenant further.

--

Nancy gave a small sigh of relief as she closed the door to the office behind her; she had half expected Frank and Joe to come by again. Picking the lock was a little more difficult than it normally would have been, but since she had lost the correctly sized pick she'd had to make do with one that was only almost the right size for the lock.

She looked around at the outer office, she'd been inside before but never when it was empty and never without at least one of the Hardys. She took a deep breath and tried to calm her conscience, which had been pricking at her enough before she'd broken in.

After a few seconds she started moving again, she went to Marlene's desk first. Even as she opened the first drawer she wondered what she expected to find. When she spotted the small silver key she smiled, maybe this case was starting to turn around after all, she thought even as she prayed that they key would open something in the office and wasn't a spare key to Marlene's house or something. Though the key was too small for that, she still half expected it not to open anything in the office.

She searched the rest of the drawers as quickly, quietly, and neatly as she could. It did occur to her that, since she hadn't put before she started, she could be arrested for breaking and entering if the place was dusted for finger prints later. But since it was too late to do anything about that now she tried to push the thought out of her mind.

She moved into Mr. Hardy's office next, searching his desk drawers just as quickly, quietly, and neatly as she could as well. She tried the key in the locked drawer but it didn't work, she decided to come back to that drawer later if she had time. She went over to one of the file cabinets and tried the drawers, most of them were unlocked. But those didn't have the files that she was looking for, she tried the key in one of the drawers there. She was actually surprised when it worked; somehow she had thought that Fenton Hardy would have been more careful with those keys. She looked through the drawer she had just opened, and found the files she had hoped for. While they were in alphabetical order, she couldn't help but notice that they were in the same order as the murders.

She hesitated for only a moment before she grabbed the files and put them into her bag, she hoped that the Hardys would understand her taking them. As she looked around the office to see if there was anything, she had disturbed she noticed something she had missed before. While there were photos in the same places they had been before, the ones that had been there the last time she had come in had been replaced by ones that had neither her nor her father in them. She frowned slightly as she saw that, she'd been certain that Mr. Hardy hadn't known she'd been hired. So why had he removed the photos that would have connected her family to his? Or had someone else done it for some reason? If that was the case then who could've done it? And why would they bother?

--

Frank leaned back in he chair, squeezing the bridge of his nose with his eyes closed. Joe looked up from the magazine he was reading; he'd stopped looking for more articles and hour before and had advised his brother to do the same. "I told you you'd get a headache if you kept it up." He said calmly. There was no smugness in his voice; he was just stating a fact.

"Shut up Joe." Frank said, though he denied neither Joe's assertion that he had a headache, nor the fact that Joe had warned him earlier about it.

Joe sighed, "Face it bro, there isn't anything else in the papers about Mahoy." He said, sounding a little annoyed about it.

"It's strange though, usually if a cop is accused of any crime that the papers pick up they report back on it at least once. And if the department doesn't fire them every case they get becomes news, but there isn't any other mention of him anywhere in the papers." Frank said, he sounded a little discouraged; a feeling that Joe figured was probably caused at least in part by the headache his brother obviously had.

He shrugged, "We'll have to find another way to get information on him. In the mean time we should probably go home." He said reasonably, he could see the security guard headed their way. "I think we're the last ones here." He added.

Frank sighed, "Okay, let's go home." He agreed standing up. Both brothers waved at the guard as the started out.

Nancy took the files out of her bag and set them on her desk, she started to open the first one but when her stomach growled she thought better of it. She sighed as she took out the phone book to find something to eat, she was kind of hoping to find something nearby that would still be open. She didn't feel like going all over New York to find dinner.

She found the number for a pizza parlor and, noting that they delivered, called them to find out if they had any specials. After she ordered her pizza she started reading the first of the first of the files while she waited.

--

Joe flipped his grilled cheese, then went to boot up the laptop. Frank had gone to bed after taking something for his headache so Joe had both the TV and the computer to himself. He didn't bother checking his e-mail, he had already received all that he expected to from Nancy and didn't really think Bess would e-mail him again for a few days at least. Instead he tried to find out what he could about Mahoy.

* * *

Author's Note: Yeah I know, short chapter... Again. But in my defense I'm been busy lately, I just graduated high school and I'm trying to get a job; so I think I have a valid excuse for not updating as often or with chapters as long as my normal ones.


	14. Contacts

* * *

Chapter Fourteen

Disclaimer: My control over the universe is growing… Now if only I could switch universes…

* * *

Joe shut the computer down with a sigh, he hadn't found much; except for one blog that might not even have its facts straight. Still, it might be worth checking out. He scribbled a note to Frank and stuck it under a corner of the phone. If he knew his brother, Frank would probably go to call him if he wasn't home when he woke up.

He grabbed his keys, double checked that his wallet was in his pocket, and locked the door behind him. He called his contact from the neighborhood mentioned in the blog, he'd go talk to the slimy creep. Maybe that weasel had seen something.

--

Nancy stretched, glancing over at her, now cold, pizza. She shrugged and tossed rest of the slice, the rest of the pizza was in her mini fridge. She would have gone back to the file, but the hotel phone rang at precisely that moment. She hesitated to answer it but, remembering that Bess and Lieutenant Mahoy were the only ones that knew her room number, she answered. "Hello?"

"Bess! Don't you dare!"

"She deserves to know!"

"She doesn't need to! It won't happen again!"

"Bess! Give me the phone!"

"Ned kissed George!" Nancy heard Bess yell right before the click that she could only assume meant that either Ned or George got the phone. She felt almost numb as she hung up on her end, how could she believe that one of her best friends and her boyfriend had kissed? But what reason would Bess have to lie about that?

--

"She kissed me back!" Ned shouted after succeeding in hanging the phone up.

"You aren't helping Ned!" George shouted at him.

"I still don't see how you two could do that to Nancy!" Bess yelled at then both.

"I don't know! It just happened!" George said miserably.

"I have a feeling she won't forgive me for this one…" Ned mumbled unhappily.

"I'd be shocked if she did!" Bess snapped at him, "Joe was right! You are a jerk."

"Woah! Wait a second… Joe said I was a jerk?!"

"Yes! He said it months ago when you were trying to convince Nancy not to take that case in Arizona!"

"I suppose Frank called me something ruder." Ned said scowling.

"Actually he didn't. He didn't call you anything." Bess said angrily. "He's not as bad as you want to think! He's nowhere near as dishonest and judgmental as you!"

"Hey!"

"You know what? Go home. Both of you. I don't want either of you near me right now." Bess said, still angry.

After they left Bess's phone rang, "What?!" she answered.

It was a couple seconds before she heard a response, "If you don't want to talk to then I understand; but could you please tell me why you're so mad at me?" Joe asked hesitantly.

"Sorry Joe, I'm not mad at you." Bess told him.

"I'm glad. What, or who, are you mad at?" he asked her.

"A lot of things, most of which I can't talk to you about right now." She replied.

"Well… I really want to ask why not but you probably wouldn't be able to tell me and you might hang up on me like so many other people seem to be doing right now. So I'll just ask what you can tell me."

"Well… I had to leave Nancy with a case that been very difficult so far, and could be dangerous if she catches up to the guy, because a drunk driver, who didn't even get hurt, hit my cab and I broke my leg in the crash. Before I left Nancy had heard about a possible arrest in the case, which would have been great if it weren't for the fact that we're certain they've got the wrong man and that the Lieutenant in charge has tunnel vision. And when I got off the plane I got a front row seat to Ned and George making out." Bess said, amazingly all in one breath.

"Wow… That's a bad week."

"That's just been in the past forty-eight hours."

"Ouch… Wait, back up. Ned and George were making out?!" Joe asked, having just realized what that last bit in her rant had been.

"Well, it more a quick kiss… But it was definitely more than a 'we're good friends' kiss; if you know what I mean."

"Oi… And I thought he was just a jerk." He muttered, "You didn't tell Nancy about that did you?!" he asked suddenly, a note of urgency entering his voice.

"Yeah, why?"

"Bess! You said yourself that the case she's on might be dangerous! She doesn't need to be distracted by her cheating ass of a boyfriend!"

"Oh! I didn't think about that!" Bess said, also thinking about the fact that she hadn't even been supposed to tell him that Nancy was on a case. "Look I have to go… I'll talk to you later, ok Joe?"

"Yeah, ok. Bye Bess."

--

Joe hung up the phone; even if his contact turned out to be useless, he'd found something out. He wasn't certain how useful anything Bess let slip would be, but it was still more than he'd had before. He made the turn into his contact's neighborhood; he didn't have much trouble finding a parking space. Most people avoided this neighborhood after dark, for good reason. Even he stayed in his car as he called his contact.

"Yo." James 'Bone-Head' McGee answered.

"Hey, Bone-Head." Joe said with a grin, he could hear what sounded like dock work in the background.

"There aren't many call me that anymore." Bone-Head replied, "I've gone straight, got a job and everything."

"That's great, but I'm not out here to check up on you." Joe told him. "What can you tell me about the cop that got shot here a few weeks ago?"

"Look, go to the bakery. I'll take my lunch and meet you there." Bone-Head said after a pause, then he hung up. He knew Joe wouldn't be happy about it but he'd go.

Joe scowled as he hung up, but he knew that if he didn't go he'd never get whatever information Bone-Head had.

--

Frank woke up about midnight, he considered rolling over and going back to sleep. But the pills he'd taken earlier had caused his mouth to go dry. He groaned and rolled out of bed. As he walked towards the kitchen, he couldn't help but notice that Joe's door was still open. He didn't think much about it until he'd gotten his glass of water, and realized that Joe wasn't in the living room.

He set his glass down and went to look in Joe's room, on the way he noted that the bathroom door was also open so Joe wasn't in there. When he found no sign of Joe he walked to the phone, not overly worried yet but definitely more awake than he'd been. He furrowed his brow when he saw the note, then they shot up as he read why Joe had gone out.

After going and getting his water he sat on the couch and turned on the TV, if Joe went out this late at night he had to be certain that he'd get some information out of it.

--

"I don't like games Bone-Head." Joe said as soon as the slightly older and much more rumpled looking man slid into a seat on the other side of the table. It wasn't entirely true that he didn't like games, but it was true that he didn't like games when it came to a case, and he had long since started to think of this mess as a case.

"I'm not playing games. Officer Henry was a good man, didn't deserve what he got. He lent me some money a couple months before he died, then helped me find a job. I never did get a chance to pay him back, and his wife wouldn't hear of it. Told me to put the money in my daughters college fund." Bone-Head told him right off, "I pulled some strings when you called, there's been an arrest in that case. Word is that he hasn't been charged, and he was released just a couple hours ago. I was glad to hear that, the chance of them having the right guy is about the same as officer Henry walking through that there door. Fenton Hardy didn't kill no-one."

Joe, who had sat patiently through Bone-Head's speech, stiffened at that. "They arrested my Dad?!" he asked sharply.

Bone-Head looked at him oddly, "I thought you knew that, figured it was why you were suddenly taking such an interest in this." He said.

"A few people seem to be keeping secrets right now." Joe said, there was anger in his eyes but he kept it under control for now. "Could you tell me anything else on this?"

"Well…" Bone-Head said thoughtfully, he knew better than to ask about who was keeping secrets. "I know that Mahoy is heading the case, and as far as I can tell, he still hates your dad. I never liked that guy, he don't seem quite straight to me."

--

Joe slammed his car door after dropping Bone-Head off at the dock, he'd had a lot to say about Mahoy, but Joe was pretty sure most of it was useless. He pulled out his cell phone and dialed Frank at home, if his brother wasn't already awake he wouldn't mind being woken up for this.

--

Frank answered the phone, "Yo? Hey Joe, find out anything?" he asked.

"I found out Dad is a suspect in the cop shootings and Mahoy is heading the investigation."

"A suspect?!" Frank asked incredulously.

"Yup, and guess where we heard the name before?"

Frank found himself almost dreading the answer, "Where?"

"One of Dad's cases a few years back, Mahoy's partner was dirty."

"Where did you get all this, who'd you go see?" Frank asked, he vaguely remembered the case; his dad had been very stressed out during it and had done a lot of muttering to himself and talking to Frank and Joe about it.

"Bone-Head." Joe said, sounding a little triumphant and a little smug.

"Amazing what you can find out about a police investigation from a crook…" Frank said, not without irony.

"I think he may actually go straight this time, he's got a job and everything. He was really eager to show off pictures of his daughter. Traffic's getting a little tight, I'll tell you the rest when I get there." Joe said and hung up, he did not want to end up like Bess if he could avoid it.

--

Nancy leaned back in her chair, it had taken hours but she had found something that she was pretty sure would help her. As she crawled into bed she prayed that she'd be able to get the boys to help her, if she knew Frank and Joe, they probably had nearly as much information as she did. It wasn't the best of plans to try to keep a detective out of something when you were on their turf, and it was a worse plan when it was a pair of detectives that knew your style.

But, she thought as she started drifting off, at least Mr. Hardy was practically in the clear. All he had to do now was repair the damage to his reputation, though it was doubtful that it would be an easy task.

* * *

Author's Note: Okay, this is probably one of the last chapters. I'm very happy because I've been hoping that I'd finish at least one of my stories before the end of the year.


	15. Friends?

Chapter Fifteen

Disclaimer: There is very little that I own, nearly a hundred owl figurines can be counted when making the short list. However, neither Nancy Drew, nor the Hardy boys, nor anyone else in their canon universe can be placed next to the owls.

* * *

Frank was pacing the room; it was a rare thing to see him this worked up over something. Usually it was Joe that reacted to things like that, but Joe had time to simmer down on the drive home. Yet another great thing about New York, if the traffic didn't give you an outlet for your temper, nothing short of a fistfight would. And you could pretty much count on it anytime of the day or night.

"This could ruin dad's career." Frank said finally, "Who wants to hire a P.I. that's been arrested?"

"Dad will patch up his reputation, and in the mean time, he has enough steady clients to keep his agency open." Joe said, despite the stress of the situation, the irony of their switched roles was not lost on him. Usually Frank was trying to calm him down about something.

Frank sighed and sat down on the couch across from his brother, "You're right, but I still can't believe that Mom and Dad kept that from us." He pointed out.

Joe nodded, "Yeah." He agreed. "What do we do now?"

"We sleep on it, maybe we'll think of a way to help without making it worse in the morning." Frank suggested, sounding very tired all of a sudden. Joe had a feeling he knew what was actually going on in his brother's head, and if he was right he doubted either of them would be getting much sleep that night.

--------------------------

The first thing Nancy did the next morning was buy a replacement phone, she didn't bother getting a good one since it was unlikely to survive that long anyway. She was very grateful for the 'save to sim' feature as she installed it in the new phone. She searched through for Joe's new number, she was certain she'd saved it. After a minute she gave up and dialed their house.

--------------------------

Frank woke up, and instantly knew that he would not be doing much of anything today. He nearly knocked Joe over as he ran for the bathroom, he didn't feel to apologetic about it either since Joe was the reason he was running.

Joe winced as he heard the unmistakable sounds of Frank with a virus. He had the sudden feeling that his brother would be grumpy today; Frank was about as good a patient as Joe. Joe went to answer the phone when it started ringing, still trying to figure out how to deal with his big, sick brother. "Hello?"

"Hey Joe."

"Nancy, I didn't expect to hear from you today, or anytime soon." Joe told her. Frank came into the room and looked questioningly at Joe, who had only enough time to let him know it was Nancy before Frank was gone again.

"I guess I deserve that, but I did it with good intentions. And I hope you'll remember that."

Joe couldn't help but smirk a little, "We'll try to keep it in mind."

"Where's Frank?"

"Unless my ears deceive me; sitting on the bathroom floor with his head hanging over the toilet." Joe told her, wincing slightly in sympathy for poor Frank.

"Put her on speaker Joe!" Frank called from the bathroom, Joe decided that it would be kind to listen to him.

"Hang on Nan, I'm putting you on speaker so Frank can hear you… Still there?"

"Yeah, I'm sorry to hear that you're sick Frank." Nancy said, sounding sympathetic.

"Does that mean you intend to tell us what's going on?" Joe asked since Frank was rather busy.

"I'd be willing to bet that you know almost as much as I do by now."

Joe grinned at that, "Maybe more, this is our turf."

"Don't I know it." Nancy complained. "Can I assume that you know what my case is about then?"

Joe watched Frank come out of the bathroom and sit on the couch, setting the small bathroom trashcan on the floor beside him. "Not exactly, but we have a pretty good idea."

"Really?"

"Joe found out what Mahoy was working on last night, and he overheard you and Bess talking about him." Frank put in.

"Sounds like he's really stepped up here."

"Thanks… I think." Joe said a little warily, but he watched the grin spread over Frank's face and could guess why she phrased it that way.

"Is that all you found out?" Nancy asked.

"Dad was arrested." Joe told her matter-of-factly.

There was a wince in Nancy's voice when she answered, "I know."

"You knew? And you didn't tell us?" Joe replied incredulously. He'd suspected that she knew, but part of him had still been convinced that she'd have told them.

"Conflict of interest Joe."

"You're the one that tried to break into Dad's office aren't you?" Frank asked her.

"I admit that he was right about the key thing."

"Did you find out anything? Other than Dad has an excellent lock?" Joe asked.

"Not that great, it only took me a few minutes to get in. He should consider installing a deadbolt." Nancy told them, then rushed on before they could answer. "I found out why Mahoy hates him, and why he was a suspect. I also found out that all but one of the victims had been cleared, he wasn't investigating that last one. He just showed up in another investigation."

"How many files did you take?" Joe wondered.

"Only the ones directly connected to the case, the one connecting Mr. Hardy to Mahoy was slipped under my door last night. I figured you guys had found out about all this and had done it."

"No, neither of us did it. I was actually planning on talking to Joe about getting that file to you today." Frank said frowning, both because someone else had been in his Dad's office, and because he was nauseous again.

"Who else would have access to your Dad's office?"

"Mom, Marlene, Mr. Drew, and Dad of course." Joe rattled off.

"My Dad had a key?" Nancy asked incredulously, "Never mind, it doesn't matter now anyway." She said going on before either Hardy boy could respond. "Look, I know Frank is sick but is there anyway you could meet me somewhere Joe? I need your help with something."

Joe frowned slightly, but after a glance at Frank, who waved him off as he went to get a glass of water to try to settle his stomach, he agreed. "Yeah, just say where."

"There's this nice little cafe near my hotel, really great canapés. And not the sort of place that anyone would suspect a detective to pick for a covert meeting of any kind." Nancy said. "It's called the A Taste of France Cafe; can you be there in about forty-five minutes?"

"Sounds fru-fru." Joe complained, even as he jotted down the directions Nancy gave him.

"It is, but the food is great and it's small enough that no-one really notices it." She pointed out. "I'm really sorry Frank, I wish you could come too but this can't wait."

"What would you have done if Joe had been sick too?" Frank asked curiously while his brother tried to find his cell phone.

"Gone on my own." Nancy said simply, there was a faint knocking sound. "I'll call you in awhile Frank, when I fill Joe in. I have to make a few more calls then I'll head out myself."

"'Kay, bye Nan." Frank said, Joe mumbled something that sounded similar but as his head was in the freezer it was hard to tell. Frank went over to hang up the phone, then, with a small groan. He went back to the bathroom to evict the water.

* * *

Author's Note: Yeah, I know this took a long time. This entire story has been taking longer than I though it would. But, I think it's gone well I hope that you have all enjoyed it so far. Hopefully the next update will come sometime before Valentines Day...


	16. A Hard Choice

Chapter Sixteen

Disclaimer: Do I really have to keep saying it?

* * *

"So you guys aren't mad at me?" Nancy asked as she and Joe sat down to a late breakfast.

"You knew our Dad was in danger of being arrested, were in fact investigating him, and you broke into his office when either one of us would have given you a key without question. What do you think?" Joe asked, leaning back slightly in his chair.

Nancy winced slightly, "But you'll help anyway?" she asked hopefully.

"Well being pissed isn't going to do us much good is it? We aren't exactly in good a position to help Dad, you are. So we'll do what we can to help you, just as soon as you fill us in on the rest of what's going on." Joe agreed, after Nancy had called that morning he and Frank had talked about it, and decided that they'd help her but would definitely have to have a long talk about this sort of thing with her once it was over.

Nancy relaxed visibly, "I'll give you all the files I have." she promised. "You and Frank can catch up while I go talk to Mahoy's mother."

Joe frowned slightly, "So you're going to give us the files you took from our Dad's office?" he asked, not without noting the irony of that.

Nancy looked vaguely insulted that he would think that, but didn't contradict him since the cafe was starting to fill up. "How have things been going for you two?" she asked instead. "Other than Frank being sick of course."

Joe glanced around and had to accept the change of topic, "Pretty good, I never thought I'd be so happy to get on a plane though. Six months in Peru was way more than we bargained for." He said. "You're right, these are good canapes."

Nancy smirked; at least things were okay enough between them for that grudging admission. "Told you."

* * *

After lunch they walked back to Nancy's hotel room to get the files, and Nancy filled him in on what she intended to do.

"Are you sure that's a good idea Nan? I mean, that even sounds reckless to me." Joe said from beside her window.

"It's a bad plan Nance, a very bad plan." Frank's voice floated from the speakers of Joe's cell phone, they'd called him on the way over and he'd heard the whole plan.

"Well, if you have any better plans…" Nancy asked, clearly inviting them to offer one up.

"Look, I know we need to find out how this guy is finding out which cops are being investigated. But putting yourself in danger hardly seems the way to do it." Joe said, still thinking about that outline of a plan she had given.

"It's not that dangerous, less so than most situations I end up in. I'll be in a police station for Pete's sake. I just want to see how they have the files on the investigations into these cops in alphabetical or chronological order." Nancy argued.

"You think it's a cop." Frank was quick to pick up on Nancy's train of thought, even from miles away, sick with a virus.

"That's why I need one of you, you'll know who I could trust to get me in there."

"And if we're wrong-" Frank started,

"Maybe even if we're right-" Joe broke in,

"You tip your hand to the killer, who might decide that you're getting too close and... We aren't teenagers anymore Nan, this guy is likely to do something a lot more permanent than lock you in a closet." Frank finished.

Nancy was torn between amazement that they could still do that, even though they couldn't see each other's faces, and annoyance that they were united against her. She didn't like being on the outside. "You two spend way too much time together." She muttered while she figured out how to reply to their observation without sounding defensive. "There was always the chance someone would do more than kidnapping, we had some near misses as teenagers, so you can't say we were any safer because we were younger."

"Why don't you use Mahoy?" Joe asked, "Ask him to get you in."

"He barely tolerates me on the case ever since he realized that I didn't agree with him, now he's doing his best to keep me out. He flat out told me won't give me the file on this last shooting.

"The seventh." Frank said.

"The eighth." Nancy corrected.

Joe heard them but just filed the information away, he'd talk to Frank about that later, right now he wanted to confirm something. "You don't like Mahoy do you?" Nancy only scowled slightly, and she recovered quickly, but Joe caught it, having been warned by Frank that he had to look close to catch it when Nancy was really trying to hide her feelings on something. "You think he did it."

"No, not exactly. There's just something about him that doesn't come off right… I can't put my finger on it and it bothers me is all." Nancy replied. "Are you going to help me get into that file room or not?" she asked, changing the subject back to the matter at hand.

Joe sighed, "What do you think Frank?"

"Fine, but not today. Joe and will look over the files and figure someone out tonight, get back to you in the morning."

Nancy nodded, though Frank couldn't see her, "Thanks."

Joe crossed to the nightstand between the two beds and closed his phone, hanging up on his brother. "Be careful Nan, this isn't like when we were kids and could hand everything we had over to the cops at anytime and just walk away."

Nancy laughed a little, "When could we ever do that anyway Joe? By the time we realized it might be a good idea we were in too deep anyway." She replied flippantly. When he didn't smile, she sobered. "I'll be careful, you just watch your own back, and Frank's."

At that Joe finally grinned, "What are little brothers for?" he asked as he dropped his phone into the box with the files Nancy was giving them to look over.

Once he had left Nancy pulled the envelope out from under her pillow, she'd found it outside her door when she'd answered the knock after talking to the boys. It was too thick to have been slipped under the door, and she frowned as she dumped the contents out to examine them again. She knew she should have let Frank and Joe know about the pictures, but she wasn't certain what they meant herself yet. And besides, they wouldn't have agreed to help her get into that file room if they'd known she was being watched and was really hoping to get the culprit to come after her. She'd be sure to order in after this though, and stay away from windows, at least until they caught the guy.

She picked up a particularly worrisome picture, it was of her and Bess in the library, Bess had a stack of magazines beside her and Nancy was sitting at a computer, and though the picture didn't show the screen, she knew it would be a back issue of vogue pulled up. She knew that, because she was turned slightly in her chair and looking up at the blonde leaning against the table beside her, and the dark haired guy beside him. They weren't quite recognizable as being Frank and Joe from the shot, but Nancy had no illusions that the photographer hadn't known exactly who they were. And that was what worried her.

* * *

**_Authors Note: _**_Okay, my only defense is that I didn't actually say which Valentine 's Day I'd get the next chapter up by… And that's a really weak excuse. To anyone who has been read this from the start: I'm truly sorry. I'll try to do better, but I probably won't. Now I've started college, which means homework instead of free time._


	17. Another Secret

**_Chapter Seventeen_**

**_Disclaimer: _**_For the thousandth time: I. Own. Nothing. Of. Value._

* * *

"So Joe, what do you think?" Frank asked, he was looking better. It was almost like the fact that he'd been so much sicker in the morning had resulted in him recovering earlier in the evening. Joe was almost jealous, but not quite. They were sitting at either end of the dining room table, files already spread out between them though they had yet to start reading them.

"About what?" Joe asked, reaching for a file.

"Think Nancy is being straight with us yet?" Frank asked, also pulling a file over.

Joe frowned, leaving his file unopened. "You know her better than I do."

"But I couldn't see her face, and I'm guessing she wasn't really close to the phone. Her voice was a little distorted. I couldn't tell much about what she was thinking." Frank replied, looking at his brother rather than the file in front of him. It had been very frustrating for him to be a purely passive participant today, it was almost worse than knowing someone was trying to block them out entirely, at least then he'd had something to do. Now he realized that this was entirely Nancy's case, she'd just brought them in because she needed someone who knew people in the local police force. He suddenly felt like he didn't know Nancy at all.

Joe was frowning thoughtfully, trying to remember any little detail that would tell Frank if Nancy was still hiding something, and oblivious to his brother's thoughts. "She did seem like she was more worried than she wanted to let on. She kept looking at the window, and the curtain was closed when we got there. Doesn't she usually open them when she gets up?" he asked suddenly, realizing that that had been odd.

Frank nodded, "She always has in the past, but she may have closed them because she knew you were going to be in there." He pointed out.

"That's all that struck me as odd Frank, if she's still hiding something she's doing it well." Joe said almost apologetically.

Frank forced a smile, "It's okay Joe, I'm sure she'll tell us everything once the case is closed." He said, trying to convey optimism he didn't feel as he opened his file.

Joe frowned at Frank, tempted to ask what was bothering his brother, but then again, he had a pretty good idea.

----------------

Nancy sighed and reached for her phone to call the boys, then stopped as she realized it was nearly one. They might still be up, knowing them they'd keep going over those files until they knew almost as much as she did, she'd forgotten to mention how she knew without a doubt that Mr. Hardy hadn't done it, but she needed to be up early to call one of her contacts in this city and report what she'd found so far, and that she'd brought the younger Hardys in, directly against orders. That was going to be hard to explain.

She sighed as she pulled out a pair of pajamas, and wished she was back home where a nightgown was just as good, but she'd learned long ago not to wear night gowns when she was on a case. They didn't tend to stand up well to running for her life in the middle of the night. Besides, she shuddered at the thought of what people might see if she wore a nightgown and ended up having to climb down a fire escape… Again.

----------------

Next Day

----------------

Joe jerked awake at the knock on the door, then glanced at Frank to see if his brother noticed, judging from the smirk… He had. And how was he so bright eyed anyway? Joe didn't remember him going to bed last night either. He reached over to steal Frank's coffee as the elder Hardy went to answer the door, only to find the cup empty. With a low curse he left Frank's cup where it was and went to get his own coffee, listening with half an ear to what was going on at the door.

"Want some coffee Nan?" he called.

"No thank you Joe." Nancy called back, then turning her attention back to Frank, who didn't really look that happy with her she continued with what she had been saying. "If I'd realized they were following you and Joe not me and Bess I'd have sent the envelope over with Joe yesterday, but I didn't have time to look through them all before I went to meet Joe and the first few pictures were of you guys with me, or me and Bess." She said.

"But you didn't even mention the envelope Nancy, and even if someone was following you it would be something we'd need to know." Frank argued, barely glancing over when Joe came in with his coffee.

"Someone is following Nancy?" he asked, suddenly feeling like half an ear hadn't been enough figure out what was going on.

"Someone is following us." Frank corrected.

"Oh…" Joe said thoughtfully as he went back in to finish fixing his coffee, but he was listening more closely to what the other two were talking about now.

Nancy checked her watch then shoved an envelope in Frank's hand, "Look, I'd love stay and argue over whether or not I should have mentioned this yesterday, but Mahoy's wife called this morning and I have an interview with her in twenty minutes." She said before rushing off.

Frank waited just long enough for Nancy to be out of earshot before opening his mouth- "Dibs on tailing Nancy." Joe said before Frank could get a word out, somehow, he had managed to not only transfer his coffee into one of their many travel mugs, but also change his shirt and brush his hair in the short amount of time it had taken Nancy to leave.

Frank shook his head, "How do you do that, and why do you only manage it when it will annoy me?" he asked.

Joe laughed as he snatched up the keys and his wallet on the way out, "Little brother's prerogative!" he claimed as he practically ran out the door to catch up with Nancy, he knew how quickly that girl could vanish is a small town, he didn't even want to think about how quickly she'd be able to manage it in a city this size.

------------------

Nancy glanced around before knocking on the door of Lieutenant Mahoy's soon-to-be ex-wife, she had left out the small detail of the pending divorce when talking to Frank simply because she still wanted to keep their involvement to a minimum, and she figured one place he'd stay away from was the house of the lead investigator. Even Joe had agreed that any open involvement on their part would cast suspicion on the entire investigation, and usually Joe was the one to jump headlong into something and worry about the consequences later.

Of course, Mrs. Mahoy no longer lived with her husband, and had been quick to explain over the phone that she only remained married to him because he refused to sign the divorce papers. When Angela Cason Mahoy herself opened the door the first thing that popped into Nancy's head was that the woman was short, shorter even than her husband, though she was much prettier.

"Hello, you must be Nancy." She said with a smile, which made her look so much younger than Mr. Hardy's file had pegged her as that Nancy wondered briefly if she was at the wrong house, but this woman did match the picture, if you took into account certain things; the photo had shown a woman a shade too thin, not sleeping, and not happy. This woman was none of those things; there was only the barest sign of strain around her eyes now.

"Yes, I'm sorry I'm late. Are you Mrs. Mahoy?" Nancy asked, though she was pretty certain of the answer.

"I'd prefer you call me Angela, or even Ms. Cason if you're the formal type. But yes, technically, I'm still Mrs. Mahoy." The woman said, stepping back and gesturing for Nancy to come inside.

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Joe sat in his van a several houses down, just around a corner but still able see the house Nancy had gone into clearly enough. He shook his head, he and Frank had looked up Mahoy's address the night before, and it wasn't in Bayport. Nancy was still holding out, and he didn't think Frank was going to be happy to hear about it. Even as he dialed his brother he wondered if Nancy intended to let them in on whatever she gathered from this interview, or if she was going make them keep chasing crumbs. He hated to think it of her, and he had no intention of mentioning the possibility to Frank, but he wondered if Nancy might be using letting them into the investigation, as a way to make sure they stayed out.

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**_Author's Note: _**_I've noticed that some people put the story on their alert list, or their favorites list, but they don't review. This makes me sad, because I would really like to know what you think. Oh well, it's not like I can make you review. I'm not reliable enough to ransom the next chapter._


	18. Interesting Interviews

**Chapter 18**

**_Disclaimer: _**_… No._

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"You said over the phone that you were the one that left the pictures outside my hotel room…" Nancy started, after the usual polite small talk was over. She usually didn't mind the small talk, but then again, she usually wasn't in such a hurry to finish an investigation either. She usually enjoyed them, but this one was making her almost with guilt and fear. Not for herself, she wasn't even thinking of what she had planned for later in the day, she was more concerned with where those pictures had come from. She knew it shouldn't, but in her mind that case took precedence over the one she was being paid for.

"Yes…" Angela said with a sigh, "I know I should have stayed to talk to you then, but after I knocked, I just lost my nerve." She fussed with a throw pillow, as she spoke, clearly more anxious now that Nancy had turned the conversation to the reason for their meeting. "I left the photos and ran."

"I understand." Nancy said, though she didn't, she wasn't the type to change her mind in the middle of something. "How did you come into possession the photos?"

"My son, he's seven, he left his favorite toy at his father's last weekend, and, well, he just can't sleep without that toy. So while he was at school Monday I went over to get it, I still have a key you see, and I called, Ian told to go ahead. Well, when I looked in Mikey's little toy boy, there an envelope in there…" She paused and looked at Nancy, her hands going still for a moment. "I guess I should have left it there, pretended not to have seen it… It was in Ian's apartment after all."

"You did the right thing." Nancy said reassuringly, this was something she was used to, she was good at. Keeping a person talking had closed many of her cases, and saved her life more times than she really cared to remember. "It was in your son's toy box."

Angela nodded, and then jumped slightly as though she had just remembered something. "Would you like some coffee? Or tea?" she asked.

Nancy smiled, though a small part wanted to scream, "No thank you, I would like to hear the rest of your story though."

Angela seemed to deflate slightly, "Yes, I suppose you would…" she said softly. "Alright." She said, obviously making an effort to pull herself together. "I hope you understand that isn't easy for me, I'd thought he'd gotten over his foolish idea that the Hardys were to blame for what happened years ago. But he'll never admit that it was at the core, his own fault."

"What was his own fault Mrs- Ms. Cason?"

"I knew he was cheating on me, I was doing an admirable job of pretending it wasn't happening, but I knew. When the investigation into Mary, Mary Carton, his partner, turned it up… Well, I couldn't pretend I didn't know anymore. I stuck with him through the investigation, until he was cleared of everything except conduct unbecoming. They buried that but it's still on his file, I think I heard that Fenton Hardy requested they bury it for my sake. He's a good man, he doesn't deserve what Ian is trying to do to him. Of course, it didn't matter much, them burying the charge in his file, since the papers got the news somehow. Personally I think Mary told them when she realized she was going to be arrested, but I can't prove anything. But I'd stopped caring anyway, as soon as the trial was over and the news crews turned their attention elsewhere, I moved out and filed for divorce. I took my son, and the money my Grandmother left me. Now I rent this place from a friend who spends most of the year in Florida, I love the neighborhood, and Mikey has several friends among the neighbor's kids." Angela explained.

Nancy nodded, filing away the information. She'd learned long ago that you could never tell what part of an interview would be important. "And the photos? What prompted you to give them to me instead of handing them over to the police?"

Angela blinked, "I did take them to the police. Well, not right away, when I found I was so shocked I just sort of grabbed Mikey's bear, and came home with them. But the next day I took them to the chief of police here in Bayport. He's the one that suggested I take them to you, he said you were working that case."

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Joe was getting bored waiting for Nancy to come out, he'd hit the point where he was keeping one eye on the house, and plugging random coordinates into his GPS to pass the time. It turned out that his parents house was only about ten miles away, which he found kind of funny, in a 'Mom is going to be so pissed if she finds I'm this close didn't stop by' kind of way. He jumped at the knock on the passenger window, half expecting to see a cop there. Instead he saw Nancy.

"How-" He started to ask as she slipped in and closed the door, then he answered his own question. "The back door. Downside to tailing someone alone, you can't watch both exits. When did you make me?"

"About halfway here." Nancy said, leaning against the door so that she could see his face. It was weird working closer with Joe than with Frank, but it would seem she was going to on this case.

"That would explain why we drove around the world to get here. That ride must have cost you a fortune." Joe said, studying Nancy's face even as she studied his. The tension in the van completely belied the light tone of the conversation.

Nancy shrugged slightly, he was right, that ride had eaten up a good chunk of her taxi budget, she'd be walking and taking the bus as much as possible from here on out. The fact that Joe felt the need to tail her at all couldn't be a good sign for her friendship with them.

Joe nodded towards the house she'd gone into, and he presumed come out of, "Who were you talking to?"

"Lieutenant Mahoy's wife, like I told Frank."

"Mahoy doesn't live in Bayport Nancy."

"Her divorce isn't final yet…" Nancy muttered, not quite meeting Joe's gaze. A lie by omission was a still a lie in her book, and she didn't like the number of them she was telling on this case.

"What were you talking about?"

"I'll tell you if you promise to stay out of it, and not to tell Frank."

"No chance." Joe said, his face hardening slightly. She'd seen the look on his face before, but rarely, and always directed at someone he wasn't certain he could trust who had just said exactly the wrong thing to convince him. "How about you tell me and I promise not to ask her? Or Mahoy?"

Nancy sighed, looked past him out his window. She knew she had to consider her words carefully, if she lost Joe's at this point she may get their friendship back one day, but they'd really trust her again. And she'd never be able to keep them safely away from Mahoy. She couldn't figure out which she was more worried about; their safety and the integrity of her case, or losing their trust, and their friendship. It was all mixed up in her head, and she just couldn't keep her heart out of it.

"Don't go near Mahoy Joe." She said tiredly, "You know as well as I do that would bad for your dad's case."

"Then tell me what's going on Nan, let us help." Joe pressed, he knew Nancy was tired, and that it was unfair to push her right now. But he was worried about her, about his Dad, and even about Frank; and he was done playing the nice guy.

Nancy hesitated, "I can't Joe." She said honestly.

"Why not?" Joe asked exasperated.

"Because I don't know anymore!" Nancy snapped, "I went from reporting to Mahoy, to reporting to his chief because Mahoy won't take my calls! And I just found out that not only does the Bayport Police Chief know I'm here, he knows what I'm working on and is directing evidence towards me. So I don't know what to think."

Joe almost backed off, but despite his age his instincts were blade sharp, and right now they were telling him that if he backed down now she'd never tell him the rest. "So don't tell me what you think, tell me what you _know_."

Nancy stared at him for a moment, then took a breath, "All I know for certain at this point, is that someone is killing cops and the investigating officer is not only trying to pin it on your Dad, but he seems to stalking you and Frank as well." She said, forcing herself to be calm and professional. "That's why you two have to stay out of this, and away from Mahoy. Forget what I asked yesterday, forget what those files say, and walk away Joe. Take a vacation and visit your Aunt, I'm sure she'd be happy to see you. But let me handle this one. I won't let them charge your dad."

Joe was staring out the windshield, then he started the car before speaking "Buckle up Nancy."

"Joe-" Nancy broke off and buckled her seat belt as he pulled out of his spot.

"If either of us had asked to do that… Would you?" He asked her as they left Mrs. Mahoy's nice little neighborhood, driving towards Bayport proper, and the police station since he guessed she'd want to talk to the chief today.

Nancy sighed, he was right. But that didn't mean she had to like it. "Joe, I'm not even sure Mahoy is completely sane… For all we know he could be the one shooting the cops in some twisted attempt to get back at his partner." She tried again anyway.

"You're not convincing me to leave Nancy, if he's been stalking us then he's probably put it together by now that you know us." Joe pointed out. "Unless he's just a moron."

Nancy couldn't really think of an argument to that, so she changed the subject. She'd try appealing to his concern for his brother later; she knew how protective they were of each other. If anything would work that would be it. "Where are we going?"

"Bayport Police Station, you want to talk to the chief right? And you can get a cab from there if you're worried about being seen in the city with me." Joe replied, he knew what her next move would be, and he also knew that no matter how much he might want Frank to leave, Frank wouldn't anymore than he would if the situation were reversed. It was just as Nancy had said yesterday about the cases they had worked as kids, by the time they realized that walking away might be a good idea they were in way too deep to actually do it. Maybe some things never changed.

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**_Author's Note:_**_ Aw, not one review for the last chapter. Was it that bad?_


	19. A Friend

**Chapter 19**

**_Disclaimer: _**_I own only the words in my own head… And a bunch of stuff, value questionable, but neither Nancy Drew nor the Hardy Boys._

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Joe parked the car a block away from the Bayport Police Station, "I know what you're going to say, and you can just stop now. Frank isn't going to leave a case, certainly not once he hears why you want him to, it's just going to piss him off, and I couldn't make him even if I was willing to try." He said glancing at Nancy, then he smirked slightly, "Face it Drew, you're stuck with us."

Nancy didn't know what to say for a moment then she laughed, "I guess I wouldn't have it any other way." She said before sobering, "Just promise me you'll be careful."

"Always." At her rather dubious look he rolled his eyes, "I'll even go one step further, I'll promise to be so careful that it will drive_ Frank_ crazy."

"You just want an excuse to annoy your brother." Nancy accused as she got out.

"So?" When Nancy didn't respond he went on, "I'm going to go get some lunch, let me know when you're done, okay? Even if you don't change your mind about the cab."

"Sure thing Joe."

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It took over two hours, and threatening to call Frank and Joe down to talk to him themselves, but she was pretty sure she'd all she was going to get from the Bayport chief of police. And she wasn't happy about it since it wasn't much beyond the fact that he'd suggested her to the New York police chief because they'd both suspected that Mahoy was using the shootings to carry out his own agenda against Detective Hardy, and she wouldn't swallow whatever line the lieutenant handed her. But she still wasn't convinced he'd told her everything, it would have made more sense, and been cheaper, to hire someone local who didn't have a connection to the Hardys.

She sighed as she pulled out her cell to call Joe, she was still going to call a cab, but she was to get something to eat first, it was way past lunch, and she'd promised him she'd call when she was done with the chief. Before she could dial him though her phone rang, she answered automatically, before she even noticed who it was.

"Hello?"

"Nancy, finally. I was starting to wonder if you were screening my calls."

Nancy's frown deepened at the sound of Ned's voice, she's managed to push the situation with him to the back of her mind to deal with later, and she had been screening his calls. She wasn't answering for George either or Bess in case George was calling from Bess's house. The entire situation was in the 'deal with it later' file. And now she had to pull it out and deal with it now.

"What do want Ned?"

"I want to talk to you, in person. Where are you?" Nancy blinked, he wouldn't think she'd fly home over this would he? He knew the Hardys were her friends and that she wouldn't leave a case with a friend in trouble. But he was still talking; "I'm in New York, well, Bayport, I couldn't get a flight into New York City. But close enough. I can meet you somewhere for dinner, we can talk this through."

"I'm in Bayport too Ned, I'll meet you at the park." Nancy said before hanging up on him, she didn't think they'd be able to talk through as he'd said, but she did think that maybe it was time they talked it out. Even if the timing was horrible, putting it off wasn't going to make it any easier, and was only making it harder.

Nancy forgot about calling Joe as she walked to the park, she was just too preoccupied with what she could possibly say to Ned that she wouldn't regret later. She didn't want to lose him as a friend, despite the fact that he had kissed George, she didn't want to lose George as a friend either. She tried to convince herself that was the reason she had been putting off this conversation, but if she was honest with herself, as she always tried to be, this had been coming for much longer than that.

She spotted him sitting on a picnic table, near a little pond. Trust Ned to pick possibly the prettiest spot in the whole park to wait for her. He'd always been good at picking his settings. "Hello Ned."

Ned smiled, though it looked a bit strained, nervous. "Hey Nancy."

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It was over, it hurt, and she didn't have time to dwell on it. She needed to call Joe, let him know what had happened with the chief, and to call a cab, get back to the city. There were a thousand things she should be doing to prove Mahoy was pursuing his own agenda and have him removed as primary on the cop shootings. But instead, for now, she sat on the picnic table that Ned had sat on so recently and stared out over the little pond. After a few minutes someone sat beside her and she recognized the scent of Joe's cologne. "Still tailing me Joe?"

"I was across the street when you came in, and when Ned came out." Joe explained.

Nancy nodded mutely, leaning against him when his arm came around her shoulders. "We wouldn't have been able to work it out." She said softly as the first tears welled up.

"Probably not." Joe agreed quietly, he knew how hard she and Ned had tried, and he knew that the harder they had tried the more their relationship had seemed to strain. But Frank was right; it wasn't his place to say any of that.

Nancy turned her face into his shoulder as she cried softly, she knew she should be embarrassed about crying on Joe's shoulder, but at the moment she couldn't think of one reason why. And though she was certain she would never tell him, and certainly not Frank, she knew she wasn't really crying because it was over between her and Ned, she was crying because it had been over for so long, and she hadn't even noticed when it had ended.

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After awhile of them just sitting in companionable silence after Nancy stopped crying, Joe surprised Nancy by offering her a candy bar he'd gotten from a vending machine before coming over. She hesitated before taking it, giving Joe a quizzical look. Even though she still hadn't eaten and it looked really good, it wasn't like Joe to just give up a candy bar.

Joe shrugged, "Break ups and chocolate go together." He said simply, "But if you don't want it…" he added teasingly starting to take it back.

Nancy ripped it open and took a bite, "Too late Hardy, you just bought me lunch." She told him after she swallowed that first hasty bite.

"Well, if I'm buying you lunch…" Joe said jumping up and walking purposefully across the park. Nancy watched him for a moment, wondering what he was up to now, but then she shrugged and went back to watching the water while she ate her candy bar.

When her phone rang she made sure to check who was calling before she answered, and was surprised to see Mahoy's number. "Hello?"

"Miss Drew, I have some information you might find useful in you investigation."

"That's great. When should I come by your office?" Nancy asked, putting a finger to her lips as Joe came back carrying a hotdog, bag of chips, and two bottles of soda. She wasn't certain where he had gotten them but when he set the hotdog, chips, and one of the sodas beside her she got the feeling he was taking her joking comment about buying her lunch seriously.

"Actually, I'm out of the office today. I was hoping you could meet me somewhere… Say, your hotel in half an hour?"

"My hotel?" Nancy repeated, genuinely surprised. Most cops knew better than to suggest meeting at such a personal place, even she had only agreed to meet Mrs. Mahoy at her house after the other woman had insisted. Joe was shaking his head, having figured out that a meeting was being arranged, and though he was staying quiet as she had requested he didn't think her hotel was a good spot to meet someone she didn't trust. Nancy happened to agree with him, "I can't get there in half an hour, I had a lead on an old case fall into my lap and since you said you weren't going to give me anything else, I followed it. It led me out of town…" She reached into her purse and pulled out a small notebook and a pen to hand to Joe who was gesturing that he needed them. "How about…" She read Joe's suggestion and had to smile, trust Joe to come up with a place that frequented by New York natives and tourists alike. "I can make it to the docks in-" she glanced at what Joe had written, "about two hours. A friend suggested a restaurant there that had just opened up when they came through about six months ago, said it was really good. It's called the… Black Pearl?" She raised a brow at Joe.

"I know the place. I'll meet you there in two hours." Mahoy said hanging up.

"The Black Pearl?" Nancy asked Joe, putting up her phone.

Joe shrugged, "Ex-girlfriend." He explained picking up the hotdog and handing it to her, "You'll have to eat on the run if we're going to make it there in two hours."

"I hope I'm not making a mistake." Nancy said, but she took the hotdog and picked up the soda anyway. "I've been advised not to meet Mahoy away from his office."

"By who?"

"The Bayport police chief and Mrs. Mahoy, they both think he's gone round the bend when it comes to you Hardys and since I was in several of those photos he had stashed..."

"Yeah… We have that effect on some people." Joe quipped, but he understood the potential problem. "I'll call Frank, tell him where we're going. You are _not_ going to this meeting alone." As they talked they'd been walking quickly across the park and towards his van, in a blink they'd switched from two young friends hanging out at the park, to two young detectives ready for anything.

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**_Author's Note: _**_Just a warning, the next chapter may take awhile. I'm bad at writing action scenes. Also, I just realized that this chapter is pretty much a nice little view of the friendship between Joe and Nancy, I actually wasn't thinking about that when I wrote it. Just something I thought was kind of cool, I'd love to hear what you think of it._


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